The next day we headed out for the next leg in our road trip, Oudtshoorn.  But first a day of driving and sightseeing!  Driving through the valleys, hills and mountains once again I was reminded why South Africa is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I know I’m biased but thousands of non South African’s agree with me!

First Stop Storm’s River

We decided to stop off at Storms River for a quick strong coffee and a stroll across the crazy bridge that spans the Storms River gorge aka River.  I’m not normally weary of heights with a camera in front of my face, without it I’ll admit I was holding on to the rail and hoping for no sudden gusts of wind, if I’m going to bungee it’s with a rope attached!  That said it was incredible, the views and overall adventure of it was fun and well worth the stop!  Coffee was good too!!!
If we’d had more time we would’ve done a few of the adventures available in the area but time was short and we needed to get on to our next stop.

Next up Tsitsikamma’s BIG Tree

Even though I’d lived in South Africa for many year’s and travelled the Garden Route I’d never stopped at this majestic ancient giant of a tree.

After a beautiful walk down the path through the already massive yellow woods we came to the 1000 year old tree and oh man is it something to behold! We just stood there for a few quiet moments taking in it’s sheer size and beauty, astounded.  You are allowed to place your hands on it, hug it, kiss it, just not hurt it.  That is what we did, the hands and hugs, not anything else.

Some people believe that when you put your hands on an old tree and breath you can feel it’s energy enter your body, that you feel something intense.  I don’t know about the others but it was my experience, the true incredibility of what the tree has “seen” go on in the world for the last 10 centuries, the horrors and the happy moments combined.  It was an incredible experience, both humbling and awe inspiring.

Click on the image on the right for more info on the tree.

Quick stop at Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary

Tsitskimma done we continued on our journey west stopping off at Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary so we could see some big cats and Zebra’s.  $15 got us in and on a tour of the facility.

Jukani houses a lot of the rescue cats from around the world including lions, tigers, servals and more.  One of their more famous cat’s is Spirit.  He was a viral sensation on Facebook for a while with the Animal Whisperer.  I’ve attached the video if you missed it.

We decided to hop on a guided through the sanctuary by one of their highly skilled and very motivated guides who not only gave us insights into all the animals but also a better understanding of these creatures in the wild.  The highlight for me were the lions and of course getting a glimpse at Spirit the leopard.

If we had more time we would’ve gone to their sister park Monkeyland as well, but alas it was getting late and we needed to get to Oudtshoorn before dark.

Places we visited

Photos from the day

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One of the Lioness’s Jukani has taken in is blind in one eye due to human mistreatment