Tuesday, 07 August 2007

Hermanus Weekend: No Whale of a Time


Went “whale watching” over the weekend. Well, that was the intention, turned out to be more like a whale “looking for” weekend. They were there somewhere, but not to be seen. Hermanus has a “Whale Crier”. His job is to bring tourist attention to the best vantage points to whale watch. He does this by vigorously blowing on a seaweed/kelp horn. He was under-employed this weekend. The Whale festival is in a month or so, maybe the whales know that and are rehearsing somewhere private. All in all a disappointment, but a good weekend. The company was good, wine was excellent, discovered a local lager that is magic. Made mussel soup starter, prawns , mussels in shells, white line fish, lemon rice and seafood salad for supper on Saturday .
I came to the conclusion (again) that I don’t like Hermanuspietersfontein anymore. It has become a suburb of Cape Town. A “no longer” small town with serious traffic problems, inflated prices, no parking, too many restaurants and all the other “tourist trap” trademarks. Thank heaven the name was shortened to Hermanus. On some road signs the “m” has been deleted, and this gives me a vindictive grin. I wanted to take a photo for Silly Signs, but the heavy traffic would not allow that to happen.
If Hermanus is the "Whale" capital then Gansbaai is the “Great White Shark” capital. About 50 kilometers from Hermanus and it is all about Jaws. Problem is that you have to go out to sea to find the buggers, Then, if you want a good look, you climb into a cage and they drop you over the side for some underwater bonding with this awesome creature. I have an arrangement with these fish. I don’t play in their backyard and they keep away from mine. Works for me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, I like to see things from above the water, I don't need to be that close to those fish, especially the sharks!

Carol said...

Sounds like you still had a nice and relaxing time even if you didn't get to see the whales..maybe they were off rehearsing as you say. As for the sharks, that philosophy works for me as well. I had the same arrangement with the rattlesnakes in Arizona :)