Every time we try to get our tongue around the name of this place we get corrected but it sounds like goat shorn without the 'G' with some long guttural noises.
It rained at the start of our journey and that some of the locals told us meant more snow on the hills. We followed a route that Deon from Franschhoek gave us along the N2 highway through Swellendam and Barrydale. At Barrydale was a hot pool which was crowded so we didn't bathe.
We headed up the Tradouws Pass and into the Karoo which is a dry desert-like region. There were many ostrich farms. In the 1880s and 1900s many ostrich farmers made a lot of money from the feathers and today you can have an ostrich omelet (it wasn't breeding season while we were there so we couldn't have any), buy feathers, leather goods, dried meat (biltong), and decorated shells.
There are many feather baron mansions in Oudtshoorn and some are in poor condition but would have looked magnificent in their heyday.
We stayed in a rambling place on a hill and it had timber floors that creaked whenever you walked on them. The fire in the lounge was a treat as we could see snow on the surrounding hills and being an old place it was a bit draughty. The owner told us it was safe to walk any where in the town and we did.
In the hostel we met an Australian couple who rode from London and were headed to Cape Town where they would ship their motorbike. They managed to fit all they needed for the two of them on one bike and had been down the route on the west coast that we would like to take. They had already spent a year on the road. They gave us a lot of information on places to stay and places to visit. We found out that I would need more than the 11 pages that I had in my passport as many countries needed 2 full pages for their visas. We decided that we should organise getting a new passport.
There was a small TV room where we were able to watch Spain and Netherlands in the final World Cup Soccer game. Three guys from Catalan joined us as well as a couple from Denmark. The Catalan boys were dressed in the Spanish colours, noisy and very animated so it was quite and atmosphere in such a small space and a lot of fun.
The next day we heard that Hank Leishout had had a cardiac arrest while watching the game back in NZ. John had known him as referee when he played soccer in Manurewa and had met him again when he was on The Building and Construction Industry Training Board. Hank was Dutch and died watching his favourite team.
