Calmer seas, bluer skies and a boat trip

Him, his mate, and his mate’s mate

Having checked out of the hotel nicely bundled up against the weather we emerged to find that today was actually quite warm and sunny. We shed a layer or two of clothing and spent the morning in Hermanus waiting for 2pm when our boat would be leaving the new harbour on a whale watching trip. On our way along the sea front we saw our little mammal friends on the rocks below again. There were three of them this time, and we spent quite a while watching them interact/boss each other around, although we had no ginger biscuits to offer them this time. Jack named them him, his mate and his mate’s mate. We visited the Whale House, which is a small museum, housing a southern right whale skeleton and displays about cetaceans. The reason the southern right whale is so called is because it is the ‘right’ whale to hunt. It floats when it is killed and has lots of oil in its liver. However, hunting is of course off the agenda these days but the name has stuck. There is also a northern right whale but they are far less abundant and are not breeding and thus are faced with extinction.

Lunch was a feast of snoek (smorsnoek) and chips, a local fish with huge bones that you would find impossible to get stuck in your throat. We warned off the seagulls as we ate our lunch on the seafront whilst also being visited by a little stripey brown mouse who was very interested in us.

Soon we were off to the new harbour for our boat trip. The start of the trip was heralded by blasts on the “whale horn”. This looked like a piece of curly pipe and was originally used by the town whale crier who would use the horn to announce (using different tones or tunes) where and how many whales had been sighted.

The boat made for Gansbaii where we came across a group of three whales. The next hour was spent being entertained by these whales as they frolicked around the boat, lying on their backs, waving their fins at us and diving under the boat. They were huge and completely unfazed by the boat. We got some very good photos of their lolloping theatrics.

Our need to see these gentle giants close up sated we made it back to shore, hopped in the car and drove the 90 minutes to Stellenbosch which is the wine capital of South Africa. Berk kept changing its mind as to which way we should go to get to the Spier wine estate, our next stop, which greatly annoyed Mark, but as he wasn’t driving, it didn’t really matter. However the route Berk finally settled on was a good choice as the view we were treated to of False Bay and the outskirts of Cape Town as we headed down the N2 was breathtaking.

On arrival at Spier we were shown to our two interconnecting rooms, the splendour of which was greatly appreciated after the not-so-fantastic accommodation of the last few nights. The kids have even got a play area outside their room set in its own little garden, and each room has a gas fire (seems ominous)!

We ate dinner in the restaurant, comprising more kudu (or Count Duku as it is more commonly known by Jack) and springbok, and accompanied by some Spier Cabernet Sauvignon (it’d be an insult not to). Ellie had a big fat medium steak that she declared was ‘the best steak she’d ever had’, and to be fair it must’ve been pretty good, the amount she managed to put away! After the meal we went back to the room and watched a little confusing SA TV before retiring for the night.

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