Day 8 in South Africa

Day 8- Cape Town March 20, 2007

We left the hotel at 9:30 en route to the airport for a 2-hour flight to Cape Town. We got to Cape Town around 12:30pm and met our new tour guide, Peter. He took us straight to the White Ranch Ostrich Farm where we were served ostrich meat for lunch.
I learned that ostrich meat is actually red meat. It tasted like a mixture of lamb and beef....I think I like it. We also had Ostrich scrambled eggs which tasted like normal chicken egg but with a much higher cholesterol level. One ostrich egg is equivalent to 24 chicken eggs.

After lunch, we were given a short introductory about ostriches. Did you know that an ostrich's eyeball is bigger than it’s brain? Each eyeball weighs approximately 60 grams while the brain is only 20 grams.
And did you know that ostriches literally eat and run? They actually swallow lots of pebbles into their tummy and they need to run in order for the pebbles to grind the food inside their stomach and thereby digesting it. Hhhhmmmm….interesting eh?

We were also able to feed the ostriches with corn. Man do they attack your hand!
The only way to tell the gender of an ostrich is through the color of their feathers. if it's black, then it's male. If it's brown, then it's female.

Their necks are also very flexible and they can twist it around easily. You can even put their food on their backs and they can just eat it from there.

Did you know that their eggs can hold up to 150kg without breaking? And to prove it, our guide challenged Eric to stand on the eggs.


Then the best part of the tour was when we were to sit on an ostrich.

Our next stop was to go to Table Mountain. But we stopped by or hotel first and to our amazement, our room had the view of Table Mountain. It is actually quite breath taking. We took a revolving gondola up to the mountain. The view up their was nothing we’ve ever seen before.
It was absolutely amazing!

It’s the best view we’ve ever seen and there’s nothing like it in B.C.

The view was so nice that we actually overstayed more than our allotted time. Afterwards, we headed to the Waterfront …which is equivalent to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I shouldn’t say that actually….it’s much grander than that. This place is full of all kinds of shops and restaurants. I think I can retire here. And that’s pretty much our day:)