{"id":1410,"date":"2015-05-12T08:21:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T13:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2025-03-03T09:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:23:15","slug":"the-word-for-the-day-is-ostrich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2015\/05\/12\/the-word-for-the-day-is-ostrich\/","title":{"rendered":"The word for the day is ostrich"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"escort\"<\/a>
Never leave home without an escort on a nature walk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am sitting looking up at the Black Mountains, around 300 miles east of Cape Town, the end result of a long day of driving on what is called the \u201cGarden Route.\u201d That\u2019s kind of a misnomer, so far anyway, since I\u2019ve not seen any \u201cGardens.\u201d Instead, it\u2019s been through rugged country that is greener than, but reminiscent of, the wild west. It\u2019s dry (the rains come mostly in the spring), otherwise we might have been in Thompson Canyon, on our way to Rocky Mountain national park.<\/p>\n

Again, many of the plants were different (I saw aloe), but some were the same (they grow sweet corn), and a few different animals. Just as we left rush hour Cape Town (at 7 am), we passed a sign warning us to keep an eye peeled for baboons. I had no idea baboons live on the plains, but we spotted many of them even without warning signs in some of the valleys along the way. They skittered away as soon as we stopped to try to take pictures, probably having read the signs, \u201clook out for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

We did stop at a \u201cfarm store\u201d along the way, where the signs were bilingual–English and Afrikaan, which are the two most common of the 11 official languages. I remember collecting stamps from the Union of South Africa in pairs, one of which was in English, the other in Afrikaan, a mark of the troubled history of the country, which was wrought by tribal wars, and at least two major wars between the British and the descendant of the Dutch settlers, the so-called Boers. As some of you Scouts may recall, Baden Powell\u2019s inspiration for the Boy Scouts was the unpreparedness of the British to fight the Boers. Afrikaan is based on the Dutch language–we\u2019re at the Swartberg Country inn, which is \u201cBlack Mountain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"With<\/a>
With my new friend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was no mistaking a sign that said, \u201cLock your cars, use remote control,\u201d whatever that meant. It\u2019s a reminder of the high<\/p>\n

unemployment and high crime that is one of the current problems that plague this potentially rich country. I heard from a former student that his company cancelled a trip here because of \u201curban unrest.\u201d An anti-foreign protest (workers from elsewhere in Africa come here for better jobs and better pay, and I saw that an automobile parts company here had relocated to Lesotho–one of two countries embedded in South Africa–because of cheaper labor) rerouted a planned tour of Durban for my Australian friends.<\/p>\n

\"Miss<\/a>
Miss the bush country already<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other different animals we saw were ostriches, farmed here for meat and leather, and one of the objects of our visit to this part of South Africa. We went to an ostrich farm, which in addition to raising over 300 of the birds, charges about $10 for a tour. The heyday of the industry in many ways was pre-1914 when women wore ostrich feathers in their hats (the museum had some stunning examples), creating \u201cfeather barons\u201d who built mansions in the major town nearby–Oudtschoon. Today, it\u2019s mostly leather and meat, though the plumage makes great feather dusters (so good the guide told us that automakers use them to dust the car before painting), and one can buy other products in the gift store at the ranch.<\/p>\n

\""This<\/a>
“This is the right way to go. My GPS said so.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, the region dictated lunch and dinner–ostrich. The filet last night was much tastier than the ostrich salad we had yesterday for lunch. The herd gets culled (maybe I should say killed) at 14 months, when ostrich are at their tenderest. Some stick around for breeding (the \"\"<\/a>ladies lay between 11 and 20 eggs at a time), and a few others to be part of the show–which includes a jockey race and the opportunity to have your picture taken with them.<\/p>\n

I doubt we\u2019ll have ostrich egg for breakfast, though; the egg replaces 24 chicken eggs, and are virtually unbreakable.\u00a0 You can stand on them, as I’m doing in the picture.<\/p>\n

I wonder what the word for today (it\u2019s Wednesday here already) will be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sitting looking up at the Black Mountains, around 300 miles east of Cape Town, the end result of a long day of driving on what is called the \u201cGarden Route.\u201d That\u2019s kind of a misnomer, so far anyway, since I\u2019ve not seen any \u201cGardens.\u201d Instead, it\u2019s been through rugged country that is greener … Continue reading “The word for the day is ostrich”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-africa-may-2015"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8508,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/8508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}