Theme of the Day: The Animal Kingdom
Word for the Day: Volstruis.
Volstruis is Afrikaans for Ostrich
By this day in the trip we were truely on vacation. I had no idea what the date or day of the week that it was.
"Masambene Baantu!"
That morning we got onto the tour bus and headed for the Ostrich Farm. Our guide Billy showed us around. Billy is the manager of the Ostrich Farm.
After a quick look at a group of Ostriches we went to meet Ostriches Susie the Stripper and Jack the Ripper. The second picture below is Susie.
Fast and fun facts about Ostriches:
-They can grow up to 300 pounds.
-Their brain is quite small.
-They only have two toes on each "foot".
-Their knee is backwards compared to humans. Because of this they can only kick forwards. In another words do not get in front of a mad ostrich!!!!
-The males have pink on their legs/feet during mating season.
Billy showed us the Ostrich eggs. Rose is holding one of them. The Ostrich eggs are actually quite strong. John is shown standing on the eggs. Surprisingly they did not break.
Jack showed us a bit of the mating dance while we were there.
After looking at the Ostriches we went into the farm's museum room. I had a little bit of fun playing with the Ostrich feathers.
After playing around in the museum room we went and ate lunch at the Ostrich Farm.
John had the Ostrich Steak.
I had the Ostrich Bobotie. Yum!!! Oh how I love Bobotie!!!! Bobotie is essentially like a spiced shepard's pie. Want some? I'm going to try and make some next weekend (only mine will be made with lamb). Come on over and try some!!!
After lunch we went over and shopped at the Ostrich Farm gift shop. Brenda bought a beautiful tan purse. Rose bought a gorgeous red purse. Becky purchased two lovely turquoise and pink coin purses. I bought a beautiful purple coin purse and brown purse.
Prior to purchasing the purse, Keith looked up the customs limit on his IPhone for us ladies. I did not want to "shoot my wad" on the purse and have little or no money left over for the rest of the trip. Thanks for the customs info Keith!!!!
For future reference, Craig told us about a way that we could tell if the Ostrich product (handbag etc) was real or not. We knew that everything at the Ostrich Farm was the real deal. Essentially the indentations should lift up like a dimple because this is where the feather was attached to the skin. If the product is fake no dimple will occur when the skin is pulled up as the print was stamped on. To see the real McCoy, John checked out my purse and coin purse later in the bus.
Whilst the ladies were shopping for Ostrich purses, Kereth was busy trying on the Ostrich feathers!!
After lunch we headed to Mossel Bay. This was where the first European set foot on South African soil in the 1400's. When the sailors came into the bay they would leave their letters in a boot in a tree. The boot later became known as the Post Office Tree. We got to mail a post card from here. Our guides, per Mouse Magic, had the postcards ready for us to mail!!!
After mailing the postcards we went to the Dias Museum. Bartholomeu Dias was a Portuguese Voyager who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in a terrible storm in January 1488. He landed in Mossel Bay on February 3, 1488. Why was this guy important? His voyages helped open the very important trade routes from Europe to Asia.
We had a lot of fun checking out Dias's boat. Somehow a Pirate snuck onto the ship as we were taking a look around!! Not to worry though he's a Disney pirate. (The scalywags only had to work for fourteen hours once the Pirate arrived-NOT!!) Arrrgh!!
After visiting the Dias Museum we headed for the Outeniqua Railway Museum in George. We visited this museum because Walt Disney was a huge fan of trains.
We came back to the hotel for a little bit of rest then we went to dinner at King
Fisher's in George. On the way to the restaurant our guides gave the microphone to our Junior Adventurers. Ryan did an excellent job of imitating Darth Vader. Way to go Ryan!!!!!!!!!!!
It was the first time that a word Craig had tried to teach us a couple of days back finally stuck in my head (I know I know it takes a while to get stuff into my thick skull ). The word was limbeleh which means "I'm hungry." It is pronounced limb-bee-le. "Limbeleh!!!"
John had the King Triton's Alfredo Pasta.
Tina had the Junior sized portion of the Ribs and Chips (yes I said Junior sized portion). The portion sizes are very generous in South Africa. We were always quite full when we left the table at a meals end. Tina gave me a couple of her ribs. Yum-thank you Tina!!!
I had the Yellow Tail Fish. Somehow we do not have a picture of this plate. Swam away the picture did. Anyway, this was the best fish dish that I had in South Africa.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. It was time for more Disney dreams...
Next up Knysna Monkeyland and Birds of Eden.
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