Oudtshoorn Things to Do

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In the midway between Oudtshoorn and Cango Caves lies the Cango Ostrich Show Farm on R328. The farm hosts frequent Ostrich tour throughout the day which lasts about 40-45 minutes. The tour includes display of eggs & chicks in the incubator (unfortunately there were no newborns when we visited), feeding the familiar bird Betsie (her neck was lightning fast to finish food from my hand in seconds), visit Ostriches of different ages, stand on their eggs and finally take an Ostrich ride (well if you call it a ride...). The Ostrich didn't like me to sit on top of it, in fact it didn't like anyone to ride it really and made every attempt to get rid of the rider as quickly as possible. Luckily I came out in one piece. Overall it was a great experience for us to visit these amazing birds.

The tour operates in every 20-30 minutes
Entrance Fee : 65 ZAR

WHEN VISITING OUDTSHOORN ,AN EXCURSION TO THE SAFARI OSTRICH SHOW FARM IS AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE.
OUR MULTILINGUAL GUIDES OFFER A WEALTH OF FACTS ON THESE FASCINATING BIRDS.

EXPERIENCE THE EXCITEMENT OF AN OSTRICH RACE WITH OUR JOCKEYS IN THEIR DASHING COLOURS ,OR PERHAPS YOU'D LIKE TO RIDE A BIRD YOURSELF.!

THE GRACIOUS WELGELUK HOMESTEAD BUILT AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY IS A NATIONAL MONUMENT.

THE HUGE EGG OF THE OSTRICH TAKES SIX WEEKS TO HATCH ,AND AT SAFARI ,YOU ARE SHOWN THE VARIOUS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THESE GIANT BIRDS.

BROWSE AT YOUR LEISURE IN OUR SHOWROOM ,WHICH FEATURES AN INTERESTING ARRAY OF ETHNIC ART AND MANY PRODUCTS RELATED TO THE INDUSTRY.

WITH OVER TWO AND A HALF THOUSAND BIRDS,SAFARI IS A PARADISE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER.

ENJOY THE HOSPITALITY FOR WHICH WE ARE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED.
FIVE KILOMETERS FROM OUDTSHOORN,IN PROXIMITYTO THE SPECTACULAR CANGO CAVES.

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They are a series of dripstone caverns that have to be seen to be believed as they are just breathtaking in size and beauty.

They do 2 tours the standard one and the 'adventure' one. the standard tour takes an hour and our guide was brilliant and really knowledgeable, at no point did you have to clamber over anything and it is done at a good pace.

In peak time I would suggest booking as they only do tours on the hour but they do have a good cafe/resturant with nice seating inside and out of you do have to wait for the next tour.

The adventure one is just that and takes 1.5 hours they do offer childrens rates but it does sound a bit much for children under 12 have a look at the website and see some of the 'gaps' you have to scramble through... Some as narrow as 30cm!

Our guide told us in New Year's day a few years ago 1 woman got stuck for 11 hours in the Tunnel of Love.....! One of the photos shows the actual size of that gap and you can work out how easy that would be.

I would combine a visit here with a drive over the Swartberg Pass as the views from the top are stunning.

Every year around easter, Oudtshoorn transforms from a quiet sleeping village to a vibrant festive place when the ABSA Arts Festival takes over the whole village. To your hearts content you can then go and watch shows, fashion, or just sit and people watch.

The Cango Wildlife Ranch is a privately-owned zoo outside of Oudtshoorn that specializes in big cats, especially cheetahs, but also has lions and tigers. Visitors are taken through the complex on guided tours that take about an hour. The first part of the the tour shows you local animals and birds from South Africa and neighboring countries, including bats, crocodiles, vultures, flamingos, and lemurs. The second part of the tour takes you through a series of enclosures inhabited by the big cats. They have numerous rare white tigers and lions. Their primary specialty is cheetahs, which they raise and rehabilitate. They have adult cheetahs as well as babies, which were very cute. For an extra fee, adults (not children) can hold and pet the baby cheetahs.

There is also an area dedicated to snakes, which you can self-tour, as well as a petting zoo.
In addition, there is a restaurant, where we ate lunch on the day that we visited. The food was pretty good, although the service was a bit slow.

The Cango caves are a beautiful cave system located about 30 km north of Oudtshoorn. There are organized tours of the cave that begin every hour throughout the day. The 1-hour tour takes you through the first three large chambers, which contain a lot of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as rock curtains, that have formed over thousands of years from the minerls carried by the water dripping through the caves' limestone rocks. There is also a longer "adventure tour", which takes you deeper into the cave, but requires one to crawl, climb, and quezze through tight passages.

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The CP Nel Museum is a good little museum in Oudtshoorn that is full of exhibits about the town and its history. There is an interesting section devoted to the ostrich trade, which made the town rich in the late 1800s. There are also a number of rooms which reproduce historic shops, offices, and other buildings from Oudtshoorn's past, including a pharmacy, a general store, a bank, and a synagogue. In addition, there are displays of china and silverware, old pianos and organs, antique cars and carriages, and furniture. There are also displays about the roles of Oudtshoorn's citizens in various wars. One of the most interesting displays in the museum was a display about Oudtshoorn's role in World War II as a haven for Polish war orphans.

The CP Nel Museum is housed in an interesting building which was built in the early 1900s and formerly contained a boy's school. The museum takes at least an hour to tour. We spent about 90 minutes and could have used a little more time.

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Oudtshoorn is famous for its ostrich ranches, which are scattered around the countryside surrounding the town. There are a number of them which you can tour. We toured the Chandelier Ostrich Ranch, which is about 7km north of town on the road from George.

Our tour at Chandelier lasted for about an hour. It was low-key, but very informative. We saw adult and infant ostriches in the fields, got to handle ostrich eggs, and also got to feed an ostrich. We learned all about the ostriches' lives, diets, and breeding habits. Anna had a chance to sit on an ostrich, and we also saw an ostrich race with three jockeys riding the birds.

After the tour, we found some good souvenirs in their small, but well-stocked gift shop, where they sell a variety of ostrich items, including decorative eggs and items made from ostrich leather (wallets, purses, etc.).