Hermanus and the Whales

Hermanus is most famous for its seasonal whale watching, and boy did we time our arrival there well (which is say of course that we didn't plan our arrival at all, which is always the best way).

But it's also got some gorgeous vineyards nearby, a great coastly walk, is a good jumping off point for shark cage-diving and has some great restaurants. So once we got settled at the Hermanus Backpackers, we ended up staying for quite a few days (and like most places on this trip so far, I could have stayed a lot longer - sigh!).

Although we had no trouble getting a room at the backpackers, the shark cage-diving was heavily booked. We booked a slot for a couple of days forward anyway (after checking around the town, as there were many places offering different options).

In the meantime we just strolled down to the town itself, from where its possible to just stand on the shore and watch the whales. Apparently Hermanus is one of the best places in the world to watch whales from a shore, and I'm not surprised. They come in larger and larger numbers every year (since whaling was stopped there numbers have been steadily, if slowly, increasing), as their routes pass by here after calving in the southern ocean. Within minutes we spot them frolicking about with their calves. Mostly you just get to see flippers stinking up and their heads bobbing slightly above water. A bit less often you'll see the whole tale rise up out of the water and slide back in again. But the most spectacular, and the rarest sight is a full breach, where the whole head and some of the body come flying straight up into the air and crash back into the water in a huge explosion. We only got to see that a couple of times, but each time I was totally mesmerized by it - such an amazing creature. A couple of times a whale would come incredibly close to the shore (maybe 50m), and you'd get a great get up-close look at them just swimming along.

Anyway, the whales became a very familiar sight, and even when sitting in the fancy-dancy Cubana restaurant for lunch one day, I could look out the window at any stage and within seconds spot a whale's flippers in the distance. I've no idea if we were just lucky or if it's like this every season.

So bored of whales, the next day we drove through the very nearby wine region. If I'd realised how close it was to the town I would have cycled, as the scenery was absolutely fantastic, and anyone with half a brain appreciates scenery like that far better from a saddle than from a noisy steel box on wheels.

We stopped for wine tasting at a few neighbouring wineries all of which were very nice. Now, I'm no wine snob, in fact I know next to nothing about the stuff, but one of the wineries we stumbled into had quite simply the most stunning view of the entire trip so far. I think a lot of the wineries in South Africa (maybe around the world, I don't know), have an associated restaurant so that after tasting some wines you can have a delectable bite to eat and enjoy a fine wine made from grapes grown right in front of you. So seeing the view from the restaurant at the Newton Johnson Estate, Heaven, I instantly decided that I was staying for lunch. It really does have a amazing view, totally unspoilt by any obviously man-made protuberances - it just had nearly everything, mountains, forests, rivers, vineyards, the sea - just amazing. The food was lovely too of course!

We also had a tasting at La Vierge, which was lovely, but a bit poncy really, and the view was nowhere near as good as from Heaven. As we drove back and forth from the vineyards we passed what seemed a lovely homely restaurant out in the sticks a wee bit - Moggs. It was closed when we stopped by the first time, but we promised to return, which we did a couple of days later. And it was indeed very homely and rustic. Worth a stop if passing through and Heaven's closed I reckon.

The evening before our shark cage-diving adventure we were told it was cancelled due to the bad weather. This was a pity, as we'd planned on moving on the next day. Instead, and being the nature of this trip anyway, I decided to stay another day and book the diving for the following day instead. But unfortunately, that got cancelled too, and really the weather forecast wasn't great for the next few days either. So that particular adventure will have to wait until the next time - no big deal really, as I subsequently met a guy who was quite disappointed by the whole thing. All the photos and promos look amazing of course, but it seems you have to be lucky to experience anything like them. This guy says he saw a shark in the water, but not up close and the water was very murky, so he didn't get to seeing any kind of gnashing teeth or sharks jumping clear out of the water or anything. Still, it'll stay on the list.

So I was kinda reluctant to leave Hermanus I have to say, I liked it a lot, but it was time to move on. Not that we moved very far mind you, only as far as Stellenbosch.