It's 4:30 in the morning. I am alone in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Cape Town, South Africa. I have had the most wonderful 3 days here. This is truly one of the most beautiful spots on the earth. Between Table Mountain and the coast I don't know that anywhere would be like it.
My visit began on Monday morning, flying in. the weather was overcast and rainy and I didn't get to see the city until we were almost on the ground due to the clouds. We had a bit of a rough landing and then I met my guide, Ian Stewart. Yes, I have had two guides, both named Ian Stewart. Pretty funny I think.
Ian of Cape Town (CT) started right off by taking me up onto a mountain to see a beautiful memorial park dedicated to Cecil John Rhodes who came here from England because of a lung condition. While taking care of his lungs he discovered the wealth of this country in diamonds and tried to establish a railroad from CT to Cairo. This didn't succeed, but he establish de Beers, the company that, even today, controls the diamond market in the world. At some point he returned to England but I am not real clear on that part other than he is the one who established the scholarship at Oxford. (We have all heard of Rhodes scholars) Anyway, from his memorial up on the mountain it is a grand view of Cape Flats and it was a good way to get oriented to the area. It is very confusing because we are on a peninsula and it curves in such a way that you my think that you are looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, but you aren't. In fact, it is a huge bay (aptly called "False Bay") that many sailors thought was the ocean, but was not.
The city actually crawls around the the peninsula and there are many little beach communities that are home to the rich and famous around the world. There are huge estates and smaller vacation homes right on the beach. Some built on the rocks and probably get the ocean spray they are so close. Most of the beaches have the mountains that go quite close to the ocean so they are precarious on the hillsides. I have way too many pictures of the homes and the hillsides but they go for miles and miles and I just couldn't get enough. :)
The very first day I made it clear to Ian that I wanted to see whales. He told me that we might see some that day when he drove me along the coast, but that Tuesday we would go to Hermanus where we would see whales for sure. Well.......we had a surprise in for us Monday afternoon!
We were driving along the coastal road and we pulled over from time to time when he thought there might be whales. One place we stopped (I don't remember for sure where) and watched two whales together. After about 10 minutes we noticed that another whales was heading toward them and joined them and then another. Four whales all together and they were moving around each other and touching each other. Ian said he had never seen anything like that before and he was born in CT!!! After about 15 minutes there was some serious thrashing about and then they broke up with one whale and then another leaving again. Then we saw a smaller fin come up to the surface. What a surprise!!! One of the whales had calved right there in front of me!!!! The others had come to help. Ian had never seen that before. We confirmed what we thought we saw the next day with the "whale crier" at Hermanus. I haven't been able to see my photos on a computer yet so I don't know how good they are, but I hope I got at least one that is discernable. Had I known what I was seeing I would have taken video of it, but since it was my first encounter and I thought I would see more the following day I didn't think to get video.
It was a wonderful experience for my very first day in Cape Town!!
The next day we drove the other direction and headed to Hermanus where we did see some whales, although not as many together as I thought there might be, but I did see whales jumping. I hope those pictures turn out. I didn't get video of that either. You really have to wait a long time and then you don't have time to set up a shot because you don't know where they are going to come up! It is so fun to stand there with a bunch of other people and have everyone simultaneously gasp..... they are such magnificent creatures.
I could have stayed all day long for many days and just watched the sea, but alas.....there were miles to go before I slept ........
I wish you all could have been there and seen what I saw and felt what I felt.
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