Hermanus

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Once we got ready to go this morning, we called and booked 2 spots on a whale-watching boat that was due to leave the harbour at noon. The trip would take anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours. We thought, after yesterday’s experience, that we should first find a pharmacy and get some nausea pills, which we did find. So to not keep you in suspense, they worked wonderfully...YAY!!!!
We then drove past the town center and saw lots of people looking towards the ocean. That could only mean one thing in Hermanus: a whale was close enough to the coast. We parked our car and quickly found a spot. I spotted the whale in no time, right in front of us, about 50 yards off the coast I’d say. I took a few pictures to give people an idea, but it looked closer in real life. I really wanted to see one from the coast without having to get on a boat, but we were excited for our boat trip too.

As we stood there watching the whale, a group of 4 people stopped beside us, and I immediately recognized one of them: Bixente Lizarazu, former French International who won a World Cup in 1998 with France (over Brazil, 3-0), a European Championship in 2000, a Champions League with Bayern Munich and an Intercontinental Cup title (in Japan, club competition). I was never a big fan of his at all and didn’t like him because he was French. Hehe Anyway, I took a paparazzi-type picture of him walking by.

We then went to the harbour to wait for the boat. We were surprised to see so many people there, and one of the last people to get on the boat? Lizarazu. Nobody else knew who he was, and he has a pretty recognizable face if you’re a soccer fan I’d say. Maybe it was his shaggy beard. hehe

We took off along the coast and the waves were pretty big, but Janel and I were feeling pretty good despite the puke-fest the day before. After about 30 minutes, we slowed down as the spotter found a whale, but it wasn’t too hard...it simply jumped in the air, half of its body exposed. I missed its first jump, but we were lucky to see two more, and I got a shot of one of them. Pretty neat!!! Further ahead, two more Southern Right whales were found. They were much calmer, just relaxing. They didn’t really do anything exciting other than just come up for air and expose the top of their bodies.

A few minutes later we found 2 Humpback whales. We stayed with them for a little while because they kept coming up and almost showing us their tails. We were told that they come up 3 or 4 times before swimming further ahead, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again. If they disappeared, we just had to look further ahead until they finally popped up. As they swim, they leave “footprints” on the surface, which are big circles of calm water, so you just have to follow the footprints to find them. One of the whales finally gave us a tail shot, and a little while later, so did the other one. You can tell the tails looked different, with different patterns on them.
On the way back, we saw a few penguins, an exhibitionist seal (not in a revealing way, just showing off) and another whale at a distance. We stood on the side of the boat as the sea was much calmer at this point, by a big window, and two of Lizarazu’s friends were sitting inside looking a little sick. Janel asked how one of them was doing and Lizarazu came by and laughed, making fun of his friend. I then thanked him for making me sad in 1998 when France beat Brazil 3-0 in Paris to win the World Cup. He beamed and said “well, we only have 1 World Cup, Brazil has 5”. I asked if he had won one other Champions League with another club other than Bayern Munich, and he said no, to which I said “so only 1 World Cup and 1 Champions League, hey”, and he said “don’t forget the European Championship in 2000 and the Intercontinental Cup as well”, his face still beaming. It was pretty funny. He told me that he stopped playing 4 years ago, when he was 37. I was pretty sure saw him play once in South Korea when France was eliminated in the Group Stage when they lost to Denmark. That was a fun day for me. Lizarazu was pretty friendly, opposite one of his friends, which looked like a player to me but told me was not a player. I think he was lying. Anyway, he ended up taking of picture of Janel and I together then took one with me. Was this the result of me peeing in the ocean? hehe

After all was said in done, we saw 5 or 6 whales, two different types, one jumping off the ocean, two tail shots, penguins and a seal. It was definitely worth it for us.

After the tour, we exchanged some money, ate lunch, and backed up the camera memory card onto DVDs. We then began driving towards Cape Town, which was only an hour or so away. On the way into the city, we were going to stop at the airport to pick up our tickets for the semi-final game between Holland and Uruguay. As we got near the airport, a police car had blocked the highway, and soon enough, we spotted a team bus being escorted by a few more police cars. Each team bus is distinctive and is decorated on the side. I couldn’t see much, but I did see a blue and white flag, which to me meant it was either Uruguay or Argentina. I figured it was Argentina because it was travelling in the direction of the airport, and that made sense to me because Argentina lost here in Cape Town 2 days ago and now needed to leave South Africa. Since we were headed to the airport, I sped up and followed the bus. I lost sight of it after a while, but noticed that a few police cars turned into the airport. I was confident it was Argentina, which would have meant Maradona and Messi were in that bus. Once we arrived at the airport, we didn’t see the bus, so we just retrieved our tickets and left. Later, at the hostel, I found out that Argentina had already landed back at home, so the bus we saw was definitely Uruguay, and they were probably driving to the Cape Town stadium for a final practice before the semi-final. Those were some exciting few minutes that’s for sure.

We have 2 more days in Cape Town, and we want to do the following:
• Visit Table Mountain
• Walk around the Waterfront a bit more
• Buy some FIFA stuff (hat, shirt, etc...)...the shirts aren’t that great this time around though.
• Get some souvenirs for the nephews (we have 5 now)
• Visit the Kirstenbosch Gardens
• Attend the semi-final game
• If we have time, at the Fan Fest, try to find the Dutch guys we met in Jeffrey’s Bay

That’s pretty much it. We fly out of Cape Town to Johannesburg tomorrow evening and arrive in Jo’burg at 8pm. That should give us enough time to watch the Germany - Spain semi-final on TV at our hostel. We are in the process of booking some days at Kruger National Park. From what we’ve heard, FIFA had booked a lot of space on those tours for football fans to use up, but that there are lots of room available due to cancellations. Hopefully, we can find something. My soccer buddy Colin Smith went there a few weeks ago and recommended a place.

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