On the first day of the year 2020 (which now turns out to be a pretty crazy one. We actually thought with a perfect start like this; what could possibly go wrong) we drove to Hermanus. From what i heard before Hermanus is a tourist hotspot, so we prepeared for the worst. Turns out, it’s not that bad after all. Hermanus is the number one whale watching place in the world, or at least it’s one of the very best. To explain why this is very important to me we have to travel back in time. Back to the days when i was little and my room was plastered with whale posters, which i ironed regularly, just to keep everything nice and tidy. I also loved listening to whale songs ( I still do by the way. I am listenings to humpback whales singing right now actually and i can only recommend doing so) and this is where i developed a little obsession that is only growing stronger the older i get.

Back to Hermanus, we knew that we chose the wrong season for whale watching. Even the whale cryer from Hermanus (yes, they have such a thing. A guy who blows a horn or something as soon as a whale is seen) packed his things and went for holidays. We still had some hope.

We spent the entire afternoon sitting on the balcony of our airbnb watching the sea and eating quiche from Peregrine, which we bought on our way and we loved the place and the quiche so much that we even made a detour on our last day to go there again. Anyways, after a few hours of sitting and watching we saw the fountains of three whales which got us excited over the moon and hopes were high for seeing a whale a bit closer

We even booked a tour in a boat. During whale season it’s a whale watching boat, when it’s not, it’s searching for the marine big five. The marine big five are whales (of course), seals, sharks, penguins and dolphins. To cut a long story short, we saw four of the five. Guess who was missing?

I still have to say that this boat trip was one of the best things i ever did. It wasn’t touristy at all. And seeing all this beautiful animals was beyong amazing. They also have a penguin sanctuary where you can buy a little penguin house. And being the proud owner of a small house on the coast of Gaansbai isn’t the worst thing (Gaansbai is close to Hermanus. The boat trips there are with less people and in general they are very concerned about the wellbeing of the animals. They only bait sharks but never feed them, so they won’t get used to humans)