Into the Karoo

This week we went from the big city of Cape Town to a small town in an area of South Africa called the little Karoo. We drove to Oudtshoorn after visiting the tiny town of Sutherland to see SALT. SALT stands for Southern African Large Telescope which is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. The drive through the Swartberg Pass on our way to Oudtshoorn was amazing to experience. There were dramatic cliffs that loomed on either side of the road. There were all shades of greys, oranges, reds, and varieties of white. The rocks looked like they were moments from collapsing on the cars below and appeared to be stacked like an enormous Jenga game. The road was unpaved and extremely rocky which made my dad nervous since we were also driving on the opposite side of the road. We finally made it to Oudtshoorn safely. This part of the journey was spectacular.

In Oudtshoorn, one of my favorite activities was going to the Cango Caves. We decided that we were going to do the Adventure Tour , rather than the regular tour, which would include going through tiny spaces and crawling around to get further into the caves than the regular tour but we didn’t expect how hard it would be. We first started the tour in massive areas with all the normal cave formations. We walked around and taking photos of the different cave structures. We learned about cave development including stalactites and stalagmites. As we walked along, the spaces became increasingly smaller and smaller until we were squeezing through tiny crevices to reach the next point. There were four chambers: Jacob’s Ladder, The Tunnel of Love, Devil’s Chimney, and the Postbox. Jacob’s Ladder was the easiest since we went through steep built in stairs. The Tunnel of Love was a bit harder since it was super slippery and incredibly narrow for adults. It got its name from the “hugs” that you get from each side of the cave walls as you slid through. The Postbox was very difficult because you had to crawl into a space which was only about2 ft high and then slide down on your stomach which somewhat hurt. The most difficult one was the Devil’s Chimney which you had to climb up slippery rocks and were only able to use the same rocks as hand holds. Overall the tour was pretty good. I would rate it a 8.5/10 because one of the other participants smelled like smoke and onions which made it unpleasant.

​During this time in the Karoo I experienced a little bit of how life is like outside of the big cities in South Africa. I would recommend visiting the Karoo to discover some of the different landscape, animals, and vegetation that you wouldn’t see in the big cities. ​