Oudtshoorn is located in the Little (Klein) Karoo which is a vast land of natural wonders in the Western Cape. It’s a dry, semi-arid region that lies east of the Cape Winelands and inland of the beautiful coastline of the Garden Route, nestled in a scenic valley between the Outeniqua Mountains and the Great Swartberg range.
Oudtshoorn is renowned for its unique and unrivaled scenic beauty. Once a quiet backwater town, it’s now one of the most popular tourist destinations on the famous Garden Route. There are three reasons to visit Oudtshoorn: ostriches, caves and mountains.
Oudtshoorn is a thriving agricultural hub in the north-east region of the Western Cape in South Africa and falls within the legendary Cape Winelands. It’s one of 5 popular towns in the Little Karoo, otherwise known as the Klein Karoo. This includes Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith and Calitzdorp.
The low-lying region is semi-arid as the surrounding mountains absorb much of the air’s moisture. At the same time, the Little Karoo is breathtakingly-beautiful with a diverse ecology that comprises towering cliffs, endless fertile farmlands, desert-like landscapes and crystal-clear lakes and streams.
The Little Karoo is bounded by the Langeberg Mountains to the southwest and is separated from the Great Karoo by the dramatic Swartberg Mountains to the north. A scenic drive from Oudtshoorn to the coastal towns of the Garden Route takes you over the beautiful Swartberg Pass.
The most popular route to Oudtshoorn is the famous Route 62. It takes visitors off the busy N2 highway and on a gorgeous drive from Cape Town to the major attractions of the Garden Route, ending at Port Elizabeth.
The 850-kilometre route is also known as the “longest wine route in the world” because as you wind your way from Cape Town to the popular coastal towns of the Garden Route, you are never too far from some of the South Africa’s best wine-producing regions.
There are three reasons why you should visit Oudtshoorn: ostriches, caves and mountains. The picturesque town is famous for:
Oudtshoorn was established in 1847 on the banks of the Grobbelaars River and grew from being a backwater rural farming community to a thriving agricultural hub. In the early days, sheep and goat farming in the arid Karoo district was most common but ostrich farming and lately tourism put the picturesque town on the map.
The farming town has struggled at different times with the ‘boom and bust’ of the ostrich-farming industry. The Little Karoo farmers are resilient and the farming district has managed to bounce back. Today, Oudtshoorn is one of South Africa’s most popular tourist destinations in the Western Cape.
A visit to a working ostrich farm to meet these quirky birds and sample authentic Karoo ostrich dishes always goes hand-in-hand with a tour of Cango Caves.
Ostrich farming in South Africa took off in the 1860s to protect the bird species from over-hunting for the feather fashion trade. The trend spread to countries such as Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Argentina but after some extreme highs and lows in the global industry, South Africa today has the monopoly on ostrich farming.
No trip to Oudtshoorn is complete without a visit to a working ostrich farm where you can go on a fascinating ostrich tour and end with a delicious meal of authentic ostrich cuisine. You’ll get to meet these quirky birds and learn more about their mating rituals, egg incubation and seriously odd eating habits.
A tour of an ostrich farm is not only educational, it’s great fun for the whole family. Visitors can feed ostriches by hand, look at the gizzard stones that come out of an ostrich stomach and visit the egg incubators and breeding camps.
You can also watch crazy ostrich races if you happen to be there when the farm labourers show off their feathery racing steads and you have the opportunity to watch the artisans at work creating beautiful pieces using the valuable feathers, eggs and leather of the ostriches.
There are over 400 ostrich farms in the ostrich-farming district of the Little Karoo but the three most popular ostrich show farms are:
All three ostrich farms are located on the R328 in Schoemanshoek, Oudtshoorn.
The famous Cango Caves lie at the foothills of the towering Swartberg (black mountain) Mountains, about 30 kilometres from the centre of Oudtshoorn. This incredible subterranean landmark consists of an extensive series of dripstone caverns that were formed over millions of years.
The great caverns were created by water that flowed through fissures in the Precambrian limestone and seeped through cracks in the earth’s face. The water scoured and dissolved the rock and limestone to create one of the great natural wonders of the world.
To begin with, only about one kilometre of the vast cave system was accessible to explore. It’s now known that the Cango Caves extends for well over 5 kilometres and could be even bigger than that. About a quarter of the cave system is open to visitors, the rest is closed for conservation.
Legend has it that a local farmer, Jacobus van Zyl, was lowered into the unexplored cavern in 1780 with only a burning torch to find out what lay beneath the rocky formations. Van Zyl found a cavern so vast that the light of his torch could not reach its distant walls.
The main hall of Cango Caves is known as Van Zyl’s Hall in his honour although research has shown that no-one by that name lived in the district at that time.
The first tour of Cango Caves was conducted in 1891 which makes the caves the oldest tourist attraction in South Africa. It was also the first to be protected by environmental legislations where a ban was placed on collecting souvenirs (breaking off pieces of stalagmites and stalactites) and fines were issued to anyone caught damaging the cave walls.
The most significant discoveries at Cango Caves were made by its first full-time guide, Johnnie van Wassenaar, who served as a guide for 43 years. Van Wassenaar opened many side chambers and introduced thousands of people to the world-famous caves.
Over the years, more and more chambers and tunnels have been discovered. Altogether, the Cango Caves are estimated to be about 1 000 metres long. The biggest chamber stretches some 300 metres.
Cango I
The first survey was done in 1897 and mapped out the first 26 chambers. The results indicated the caves were 775 metres long in a single line. Cango I is the only part of the Cango Caves that is open to the public. The nearest point to the surface is at the top of the shaft in what is called the Devil’s Kitchen.
Cango II
Cango II was discovered in 1972. It stretches 279 metres beyond the end of the Devil’s Kitchen and ends with a shaft that drops 20 metres into a chamber filled with water. The water flows in the direction of Cango I.
Cango III
Cango III was discovered in 1975 when an exploration team drained the Cango II chamber of most of its water.
The Cango Caves is located in a limestone belt which is 1.5 kilometres wide and about 16 kilometres long. The limestone was formed by chemical processes over a period of some 20 million years. It does not consist of animal shells and contains no fossils which means the limestone belt has always remained under the earth’s surface.
The vast cave system was formed by rainwater that dissolved the limestone to create an extensive network of subterranean caves and tunnels. The acidic oxygen in the rainwater created a crystalline solution when it came into contact with the calcium carbonate of the limestone. The solution hardened and eventually accumulated as gigantic stalagmites, stalactites and flowstones.
There is evidence that the ancient San (Bushmen) lived and sheltered in the caves for at least 80 000 years. The entrance to the vast cave system would have provided shelter and protection from the elements and predators. A fine collection of vivid Bushman paintings in the caves tell a tale of their daily lives and wild animals in the area.
A tour of Cango Caves takes you 1-kilometres into the most-accessible section of the cave system. You can chose the Heritage Tour which is not too taxing, or the Adventure Tour where you have to clamber through some of the cave tunnels on your hands and knees.
A knowledgeable guide conducts the tours which takes between 1 to 2-hours to complete, depending on the type of tour. There’s a good restaurant and souvenir shop at the administration centre where you can grab a bite to eat and drinks after the Cango Cave tour.
Cango Caves Heritage Tour
Approximately 1-hour long
Involves a moderate walk through the first two magnificent halls and continues to the African Drum Chamber. There are several staircases to climb down and up on the Heritage Tour.
Cango Caves Adventure Tour
Approximately 1.5 hours long
Involves crawling through narrow tunnels and climbing up steep rock formations guided by small lights. From the two large main caverns, the Adventure Tour snakes along passageways with names like Lumbago Walk, Devil’s Chimney and the Letter Box.
The smallest passageway that visitors have to crawl through is just under 30 centimeters high and some of the narrow passages are quite challenging. This means the Adventure Tour is limited to visitors of a certain weight and fitness.
Van Zyl’s Hall
Van Zyl’s Hall is over 70 metres long, 35 metres wide and reaches a height of 17 metres. The breathtaking cave is veiled by a striking grey-blue dolomite ceiling and illuminated to expose magical centerpieces such as the 10-metre high Cleopatra’s Needle, the Organ Pipes, the Ballerina and the Frozen Waterfall.
They used to stage incredible musical concerts in Van Zyl’s Hall for audiences of up to 1 000 people. The sanctity of the vast hall is now preserved and activity is restricted to guided tours.
Botha’s Hall
Botha’s Hall is about the size of a football field with a ceiling 18-metres high off the cave floor. It’s one of the largest and most impressive caverns open to the public. It’s named in honour of Commandant Botha who was the first custodian of the Cango Caves.
The most famous feature in the massive cavern is the Madonna and Child. It’s a striking formation that resembles the figure of Mary cradling her baby in her arms.
Another impressive feature is a 13-metre high stalactite that is estimated to have developed over some 250 000 years. It’s grown upwards to join with a descending stalagmite to create a unique formation.
The Throne Room is dominated by a magnificent dripstone stalagmite, known as the Throne. You’ll also find other perfect examples of rimstone pools, flowstone, curtains, stalagmites and stalactites that have been created by calcite processes.
The limestone curtains in the Throne Room were formed by the capillary action of calcium-bearing water between two slight protrusions over thousands of years. They add a dramatic backdrop to the Throne Room and are illuminated to create an ethereal atmosphere.
The magnificent Swartberg Pass is 27-kilometres long and is regarded as one of the most breathtakingly-beautiful mountain passes in the world. The untarred gravel road winds up to the summit that lies 1 583 above sea level, with steep zigzag turns and sudden switchbacks which reveal incredible views at every corner.
Swartberg means ‘black mountain’ in Afrikaans. The impressive mountain range lies between the picturesque town of Prince Albert and Oudtshoorn and takes about an hour to drive, including stops.
For a long time, the imposing mountain range created an impenetrable barrier which separated the Great Karoo from the Little Karoo and the coastal towns of the east coast of South Africa. Today, there are three major gateways that link the two regions: Swartberg Pass, Meiringspoort and Seweweekspoort.
The Swartberg Pass was declared a National Monument in 1998 which marked its Centenary year. It’s the Rubicon of gravel road passes and a trademark of the brilliant and famous road engineer, Thomas Charles Bain. In fact, it was Thomas Bain’s final and best piece of road building.
Thomas Bain was the son of the famous Andrew Geddes Bain who built Bain’s Kloof Pass, an historic pass that links Cape Town with Wellington in the interior.
Swartberg Pass was built between 1881 and 1888 using a squad of some 200 convict labourers. It was torturous work for these convicts. Large rocks were broken up by heating them with fire and then pouring cold water over them. The smaller rocks were crushed by hand using sledgehammers.
The building of Swartberg Pass followed the father and son’s earlier construction of another pass on the same mountain range called Meiringspoort. It’s located further east of Swartberg Pass and was opened in 1858.
The first traffic to drive over Swartberg Pass in 1886 were carts and wagons. The first car driven over the pass some 120 years ago was driven by a certain Dr Russell.
You’ll still find hand-packed stone walls in some places along the way and relics of historical sites such as Die Stalletjie (small stall) where the mail cart horses were watered and fed, Blikstasie (the old prison where the convicts were locked up for the night), Witdraai (white corner), Fonteintjie (small fountain), Skelmdraai (devious corner) and Die Top (the top of the pass).
The Swartberg Pass is covered with snow in winter and its unique micro-climate supports a rich array of fynbos (fine bush) and birdlife. The Swartberg Nature Reserve that surrounds the famous mountain pass was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
Driving up Swartberg Pass, you climb about 1 000 metres in 12 kilometres. The road is gravel and sand and can be treacherous in places. You don’t need a high-clearance 4-wheel vehicle to drive over Swartberg Pass but it is recommended to make it a less scary journey.
It can get extremely cold at the top of the Swartberg Pass in the winter months or if a cold front is moving to the region. Pack warm clothes for your trip to the Swartberg Pass because you never know what temperatures you’ll experience at the top of the mountain.
Visiting an ostrich farm, a tour of the Cango Caves and driving over the Swartberg Pass are the top 3 most popular things to do on a holiday to Oudtshoorn. But there’s a lot more to the district than ostriches, caves and mountains.
Art, cheese, chocolate and liqueur route
Take time to visit the town of Oudtshoorn itself and discover a world of culture and decadent delights. Start at Moooi in Jam Street to view a collection of local art and enjoy a cup of homebrewed coffee at their deli. Head on to Tantinki in Langehoven Street to sample a delicious selection of cheese and other products made from goat’s milk.
Walk across the road to Rococo to sample the local Belgian chocolatier’s fine chocolate. End your morning in Oudtshoorn with a visit to Grundheim in Volmoed Street which sells a selection of award-winning liqueurs, sweet wines and port.
CP Nel Museum
Oudtshoorn is rich in history and renowned for its prominent heritage buildings and gorgeous old homes that were built at a time when the ostrich town was thriving. The CP Nel Museum showcases the town’s rich history, focusing on the ‘boom period’ which dates back from 1900 to 1914. The museum houses the private collection of the late Colonel Charles Paul Nel in a heritage sandstone building with a working clock-tower.
Buffelsdrift Game Reserve
There’s a good reason to book an overnight stay at Buffelsdrift Game Lodge. Guests staying at the lodge are taken on morning and late-afternoon walks to a waterhole where they get to interact with 3 hand-reared elephants.
Buffelsdrift Game Reserve lies in the shadows of the Swartberg Mountains and falls within the Swartberg Nature Reserve. The nature reserve is renowned for its outstanding flora biodiversity and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Karusa Vineyards
Ostriches aren’t the only thing Oudtshoorn is famous for; the district also produces a fine selection of wine and an abundance of tropical fruit. Karusa Vineyards is a family-owned wine farm that produces an excellent Cap Classique and Mediterranean-style wines as well as tasty craft beer from their micro-brewery. Pair delicious wine or craft beers from Karusa Vineyards with superb cuisine at the on-site restaurant.
Cango Wildlife Ranch & Cheetahland
Cango Wildlife Ranch started as a crocodile farm in the 1970s and eventually became a sanctuary for many orphaned and injured animals and reptiles. Cango Wildlife Ranch is a short 3-kilometre drive from the centre of Oudtshoorn.
Cango Wildlife Ranch is the only place in the world that offers a crocodile cage diving experience. You’re put in a sturdy cage and lowered into the crocodile-infested water where you have the chance to observe crocodiles in their natural habitat.
Cheetahland is located at the Cango Wildlife Ranch. It was established in 1988 as a wild cat conservation camp and is the oldest and biggest cheetah sanctuary in the world. Cheetahs don’t breed well in captivity but Cheetahland has proudly bred over 100 cheetahs at the centre.
The cheetahs are hand reared at Cheetahland and are familiar with human contact. This means you have the chance to interact with some of the cheetahs at the camp. Cheetahland is also home to a collection of rare and endangered big cats including a Bengal tiger, white lions and a jaguar.
Gamkaberg Nature Reserve
Gamkaberg Nature Reserve spreads out across most of the mountain range surrounding Oudtshoorn and is renowned for its rugged beauty and floral diversity. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site a few years ago.
Gamkaberg Nature Reserve is hugely popular for walking trails, hiking, mountain biking and kloofing. It’s home to the endangered Cape mountain zebra as well as an array of antelope such as red hartebeest, eland and klipspringers.
Gamkaskloof (Die Hel)
Gamkaskloof is known as Die Hel or ‘Go to Hell’ because of how remote and inaccessible the area is. Gamkaskloof is an isolated valley found deep in the Swartberg Mountains and the road down into the kloof is hair-raising in places. However, it’s worth every minute tackling the nail-biting bends to reach the bottom because its beauty is simply breathtaking.
To get to Gamkaskloof, you turn off at the very top of the Swartberg Pass. Basic accommodation in the valley can be booked through CapeNature and there’s a small shop-cum-restaurant at the bottom of the road. The road to the bottom of the valley is only 50-kilometres long but it can take you a whole day in a sedan. A 4×4 vehicle with high clearance is recommended.
Klein Karoo Arts Festival
The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) (Klein Karoo Arts Festival) is an Afrikaans language arts festival that takes place each year in Oudtshoorn. The festival includes both the visual and the performing arts and is one of the largest art festivals in South Africa.
Every year, thousands of people with an interest in Afrikaans culture and the performing arts descend on Oudtshoorn for a week-long festival. The popular arts festival takes place in the last week of March.
The ostrich is the world’s largest bird. It cannot fly and has the largest eye of any land animal. Both these characteristics make ostriches vulnerable in the wild at night to predators.
Ostriches don’t have teeth so they swallow small pebbles the pickup off the ground which help to grind up food in their stomachs. An adult ostrich can carry up to 1 kilogram of stones at any one time.
Ostriches only have two toes on each foot where other birds have four. Each foot has a large nail on the larger, inner toe that looks like a hoof. They use their long legs as powerful weapons when threatened and are capable of killing a human or predator with one forward kick.
It’s a flightless bird because their light-weight wings cannot carry the weight of their massive body. They can sprint at over 70 kilometers an hour and cover up to 5 metres in a single stride. An ostriches wings are about 2 metres long and are mainly used for elaborate mating rituals and to shade their young chicks in the heat of the Karoo day.
Ostrich females lay giant eggs which are about 15 centimeters long and weigh as much as 2-dozen chicken eggs. All the ostrich hens lay their eggs in the dominant hen’s 3-metre wide nest and are incubated by the dominant female by day and by the male at night.
Ostriches are farmed for their meat, feathers and skin which is used to make leather products. Ostrich meat has become more popular recently because of its health benefits. It’s lower in calories, cholesterol and fat than skinless chicken and turkey. At the same time, it is high in iron and protein. A serious benefit of ostrich meat is it has an ideal pH balance so it does not attract harmful bacteria like E.coli or salmonella.
The wild ostrich populations were nearly wiped out with over-hunting when feathers were such a valuable commodity. Today, the majority of ostriches survive in protected game reserves and on ostrich farms.
The good times
The Oudtshoorn valley presented farmers with the perfect conditions for growing lucerne which also happens to be the favourite food of ostriches. In the 19th century, this gave rise to a burgeoning ostrich-farming industry that flourished as the demand for decorative feathers soared.
Ostrich feathers were a highly-valued commodity at a time when the women of the Victorian and Edwardian era’s appetite for the biggest and the best plumes was insatiable. Ostrich farming took off in South Africa, largely to curb over-hunting of the wild populations of the large bird and to satisfy the demand for fashionable feathers.
The craze for extravagant feathers wasn’t limited to fashion either. They became the essential element of respectable Victorian funerals. At the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852, the enormous hearse was pulled by 12 black horses, each wearing an striking plume of prime black ostrich feathers. The parade was witnessed by some 1.5 million people and entrenched ostrich feathers as a status symbol of the rich and famous.
The demand for ornate feather accessories was met by rampant hunting of wild ostriches across the Sahara and southern Africa. The demand was so high that ostriches faced extinction, much like the dodo bird. The more scarce ostrich feathers became, the more desirable they were and the higher the price tag.
Fortunately, by the 1860s, colonial farmers in the Cape saw a golden opportunity to farm ostriches for profits. It took some time to round up and domesticate a breeding colony of ostriches and by 1865 after some experimentation, the farmers in Oudtshoorn were having some success with about 80 ostriches. The large birds could be plucked without harming the bird and the feathers would regrow.
Ostrich farming in South Africa had another boost when a pioneering ostrich farmer, Arthur Douglass, invented an incubator that could be used to safely hatch chicks. This boosted the flocks of farmed ostriches to well over 20 000 in the Oudtshoorn region alone.
Ostrich farming in Oudtshoorn was so successful by the early 1870s that many farmers switched from sheep farming to ostrich farming. By the 1880s, ostrich feathers had become South Africa’s fourth-largest export after gold, diamonds and wool.
The town of Oudtshoorn flourished and wealthy ostrich merchants built beautiful manor homes that today are impressive heritage buildings. Port Elizabeth flourished as a trading post and the luxurious houses and buildings you see in the city today were built on money raised from feather taxes. They became known as the “feather palaces”.
The bad times
Inevitably, the feather bubble burst as ostrich farming became so popular and the market was flooded with feathers. Farmers couldn’t get the high prices they were getting in the early 1880s. By the mid-1880s, the price of feathers around the world bottomed out and many ostrich farmers in South Africa went out of business.
By 1914, the over-supply of feathers, changing fashion trends, the use of automobiles (flamboyant headdresses were no longer practical) and the outbreak of World War I had virtually wiped out ostrich farming in South Africa. Thousands of ostriches were slaughtered for pet food and farmers eked out a living for a bit longer using the ostrich skin to make leather products.
The majority of ostrich farmers went back to farming sheep and goat and the glory days of ostrich farming in Oudtshoorn faded into a distant memory.
Ostrich farming in South Africa gained some traction after World War II but more to meet the demand for ostrich meat and leather rather than feathers for fashion. However, an outbreak of an avian flu strain in 2011 brought it to its knees again.
Some 50 000 ostriches had to be culled and South Africa was banned from exporting fresh ostrich meat to the lucrative markets overseas. Farmers left the ostrich industry, hundreds of labourers lost their jobs and the region’s prospects were dire for many years.
Ostrich farming in South Africa today
While ostrich farming in South Africa has or never will reach the heights of the booming 1880s period, advances in avian flu inoculations and farming technology has seen a revival of ostrich farming in the country.
Today, there are about 400 ostrich farms in the Little Karoo and South Africa accounts for approximately 95% of the world’s ostrich population. It’s why Oudtshoorn is called the “Ostrich Capital of the World”.
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