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Then there's a crocodile ranch, advertised by two enormous fibre-glass reptiles, in chef's hat and apron, licking their chops. Cheetahland and the Cango Wildlife Ranch welcome visitors into the reception area via another gaping-jawed croc. And from the curio-sellers on the side of the road, you can pick up an ostrich-egg tea-kettle. Just to remind you. But hidden in the belly of the Swartberg, twenty winding minutes outside town, lies Oudsthoorn's real attraction, the Cango Caves. Ancient paintings at the entrance to the Caves prove the San to have been the first to find the 5,3 km labyrinth but it seems to have remained unexplored until the entrance was rediscovered in 1780 by a herdsman named Klaas while searching for stray cattle. He told the farm manager of the Van Zyl farm, and Barend Oppelt and farmer Van Zyl went exploring. The two men entered the muggy dark of the first great chamber by dangling themselves from leather thongs. With only the aid of an oil lamp they were not able to see the extent of their find and they estimated that the cavern was five miles long, three miles wide and one mile high. They were more than a few miles out but such excitability however is surely warranted by the awesome spectacle electricity has brought out of the dripping dark. Accessed today down a long flight of stairs rather than a leather strap, Van Zyl's Chamber is pure Baroque. Rococo waves of rust and marbled sand sweep across the vaulted ceiling of the cavern. The walls drip with flowstone draperies like the Pipe Organ or bristle with seaweed tendrils. Stalactites cascade from above like the frosted breath of hidden gods. Gauzy columns, such as the ten-metre high Cleopatra's Needle, float upwards to meet their other half. This could take some time. Stalactites have growth rings like trees and the calcite roses and cave popcorn, arum lilies and seaweed gardens are sculpted at rates of 3-5 cubic millimetres a century. The petrified weeping willow formation in the second great chamber is estimated at 1,5 million years old. But the real-time world beckons of silicon and cell-phones, alarm clocks and appointments and alarums. Our desert liner heads for home. | 
