Sights in The Garden Route
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Cango Wildlife Ranch
If you’re all ostriched out, head to this ranch. It feels a bit zoolike but contains a good collection of wildlife and big cats (in rather small enclosures). An encounter with cheetahs costs R140, and with the tiger cubs R300 (for over-16s only); funds go to the Cheetah Conservation Foundation. And if shark-cage diving is old hat for you, then you’ll love the crocodile-cage diving here, in a heated pool. The ranch is 3km from town on the road out to Prince Albert. Other big cats here include lions, pumas and Bengal white tigers, and there are also pygmy hippos, alligators and other wild animals.
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Cango Caves
Named after the Khoe-San word for ‘a wet place’, the CangoCaves are heavily commercialised but impressive. There’s a choice of tours on offer. The one-hour tour gives you just a glimpse – it’s better to choose a longer tour. The Adventure Tour is the most fun, but involves crawling through tight and damp places so is not recommended for the claustrophobic or unfit. The caves are 30km north of Oudtshoorn.
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CP Nel Museum
Extensive displays about ostriches, as well as Karoo history, make up this large and interesting museum, housed in a striking sandstone building completed in 1906 at the height of ostrich fever. It also features some impressive reconstructed Victorian shops and the interior of an 1896 synagogue transferred here when its original home was demolished.
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Highgate Ostrich Show Farm
They offer guided tours of 45 minutes to 1½ hours. We found the staff at Highgate Ostrich Show Farm very knowledgeable. It’s 10km from Oudtshoorn en route to Mossel Bay.
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Le Roux Townhouse
Decorated in authentic period furniture, this place is as good an example of a ‘feather palace’ as you’re likely to see.
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Safari Ostrich Show Farm
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Meerkat Magic Conservation Project
Biologist and conservationist Grant McIlrath is the world’s foremost expert on meerkats. His passion for the endearing animals comes shining through in his unique meerkat experience. At this pioneering conservation project, you will get to see up close how these curious, highly intelligent creatures communicate and live. Thanks to Grant’s many years of building up trust with the meerkats, they are entirely unaffected by your presence while allowing you to enter their environment. If you have only one wildlife encounter in the Western Cape, make it this one. The natural meerkat burrows are at various locations a few kilometres west of Oudtshoorn along Rte 328, but the coll…
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CP Nel Museum & Le Roux Townhouse
Extensive displays about ostriches, as well as Karoo history, make up this large and interesting museum, housed in a striking sandstone building completed in 1906 at the height of ostrich fever. It also features some impressive reconstructed Victorian shops and the interior of an 1896 synagogue transferred here when its original home was demolished.
Included in the ticket price is admission to Le Roux Townhouse. This place is decorated in authentic period furniture and is as good an example of a ‘feather palace’ as you’re likely to see.
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Cango Wildlife Ranch & Cheetahland
If you’re all ostriched out, head to this ranch. It feels a bit zoolike but contains a good collection of wildlife and big cats (in rather small enclosures). An encounter with cheetahs costs R140, and with the tiger cubs R300 (for over-16s only); funds go to the Cheetah Conservation Foundation. And if shark-cage diving is old hat for you, then you’ll love the crocodile-cage diving (R220) here, in a heated pool. The ranch is 3km from town on the road out to Prince Albert. Other big cats here include lions, pumas and Bengal white tigers, and there are also pygmy hippos, alligators and other wild animals.
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Church
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Church
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SAN Parks
Regulated by SAN Parks, Knysna Lagoon, covering 13 sq km, is not a national park or wilderness area. Much is still privately owned, and the lagoon is used by industry and for recreation. The protected area starts just to the east of Buffalo Bay and follows the coastline to the mouth of the Noetzie River. The lagoon opens up between two sandstone cliffs, known as the Heads – once proclaimed by the British Royal Navy the most dangerous harbour entrance in the world. There are good views from a lookout on the eastern head, and the privately owned Featherbed Nature Reserve on the western head.
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Brenton Beach
Further on is the Featherbed Nature Reserve, and on the seaward side, Brenton Beach.
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Knysna Elephant Park
Sadly, it’s extremely unlikely that you will see the last remaining wild elephants that live in Knysna’s forests, but you are sure to see some if you head to Knysna Elephant Park, 22km east of Knysna off the N2. Here, small groups of visitors go on walking tours with the elephants. The tours are hardly authentic wildlife encounters, but kids love them.
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