Hermanus and the Whales

The following blog post was written on the evening of the 3rd of August in the car driving on the Garden Route to Knysna, South Africa

We were reading out travel books and discovered that a small city in South Africa, called Hermanus, boasts to be the best place in the world to whale watch from shore. After sorting through some maps we discovered that it would be only about 40km off the N2 from where we would already be driving on our trip between Knysna and the Winelands, so we figured we should go for it.

Steven and I both planned on seeing whales if we were making the drive out of the way, but Jill was slightly less optimistic when it came to planning on seeing whales. Later she explained that she assumed that you would probably have to wait all day to hope for a whale sighting.

We pulled into the parking lot and started walking towards the area down the road where we saw people sitting and staring at the water. Before we knew it an enormous black and white tail flapped out of the water and smacked the surface, sending water flying up into the air. From there, we watched as the whales seemed to dance in front of us; surfacing, turning, bobbing their heads of the water, and jumping above the surface. It was spectacular! I have never seen anything like it, they are so big and graceful at the same time.