Hermanus

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Found a lovely campsite at Onrus which is just outside Hermanus, we set up camp with a front seat view of the ocean, just metres from the crashing waves and hoped that the wind would not blow too hard. Drove straight into Hermanus, we didn't hold out much hope of seeing any whales as we had been hearing that they had been leaving and the bad weather had moved them out of the bay as well. We were rewarded by seing a couple of whales in the bay, not too close and they were moving out but at least we did see them.

The following morning we went back to a lovely cafe we had found the night before with huge windows looking right over the bay, ordered a breakfast, Andy went for the mega one and then wished he hadn't as it was probably the biggest breakfast we had ever seen, he tried manly but could not manage the whole lot. We decided we would take the cliff path walk along some of the bays adjacent to the main one and see if we could spot any whales, there were a few far off sightings but nothing exciting as we started. The very next bay we got to we spotted a whale and calf so close in that at first we thought they were rocks. We sat and watched them for at least an hour, the calf was very close in, playing in the surf line while mum stayed out a bit more. There were very few watchers as most people seem to stay in the main bay. Throughout the day we saw more whales but none as close as that.

That evening we met friends who have a holiday home in Hermanus - they are called swallows apparently, 6 months in UK and 6 months in South Africa, now how bad can that be! - and went out for a delicious prawn supper.

Still sleeping in the cab, nothing can beat waking up at first light to have a 360 degree window and right in front of you is a sparkling ocean crashing onto the rocks - a view you could expect to pay a fortune for.

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Photos

Bay in Hermanus
I promise we saw whales, we just didn't capture them on film.