Oudtshoorn Things to Do

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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.).

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Several ostrich show farms offer entertaining daily tours and demonstrations during which one can learn about the history and use of these birds, their life cycle and about how they are farmed. Curio shops on the farms and in Oudtshoorn specialise in the finest ostrich leather, ostrich meat and ostrich feather products.

As we drove past Wilgewandel Holiday Farm we noticed the camels waiting for the next rider to pitch. They have seven very friendly and well-trained dromedary camels that can't wait to offer you a ride. Their names are: Joshua, Moses, Vossie, Abraham, Nelson, Thabo and Josef.
They offer many other interesting things to do, cannot tell you anything about the prices.