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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Glimpse
The glimpse we had of a whale before we left Hermanus. Geo: -34.3535, 18.9127
This morning we got up early, had breakfast and were more than ready to leave our B&B – Palm Tree Cottage. We had a last drive around Hermanus in the hope of seeing some whales. We were fortunate enough to see a whale splashing about, but it was very far out to sea. In between looking for whales, I found another dassie - it looked a bit sad/sleepy and was very inactive. I enjoyed our time in Hermanus, I just wish the weather had been a bit better and the whale sightings closer to shore. It is a nice relaxed, seaside town.
I was looking forward to visiting Betty's Bay, as it would be another opportunity to see more penguins. The drive to Betty's Bay is only 37km. It took us about two hours. We were in no rush to get back to Cape Town.
Betty's Bay was a very small seaside town. The only attraction here was the penguin colony. The species that live here are the African Penguin and there are about 1000 breeding pairs - lifelong with their partners. The entrance fee here was so much cheaper than what we paid at Boulder's Beach, a lot
02 Sleepy/Sad
The sad/sleepy dassie. less tourists and a more genuine experience.
We took our time to walk to the end of the boardwalk and back. Along the way we observed many penguins getting on with their daily routines – getting in and out of the water, young ones were moulting, jumping about, swimming, diving into the water and mostly standing around. I really enjoyed it that they were not bothered by our presence and just got on with their lives. I didn't want to leave. It was really relaxing to watch them just a few metres away from us.
Through reading the brochure I did learn that their natural predators are seals, sharks, kelp gulls, mongooses as well as humans. In the end we spent half an hour at the penguin colony- it seemed like so much longer.
About a five minute drive from the penguins, we stopped for lunch at a cafe on the main road – Cafe Jack. We then slowly made our way back to Cape Town airport via the scenic R44 coastal road.
We stopped a lookout point and enjoyed the beautiful coastal scenery. Ironic that the day we are leaving Cape Town is the day
03 Leaving
A penguin leaving the water. that the weather has been at its best! This afternoon the weather was glorious - sunny and warm. We cautiously drove through a township in Gordon's Bay and then soon after we were back at the airport. Our rental car was dropped off and then we waited a few hours for our 8pm flight back to Johannesburg.
Towards the end of our flight, we experienced the most awful, bumpy turbulence. I was very glad when we landed. Paul was waiting for us. We spent the night at his parent's place and then we took Rach to Madikwe with us the next morning.
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