So: time for the road trip! Our
original plan was to go for a week: drive down past Cape Town to
Hermanus via the nice and scenic coastal route, do some whale
watching there, the next day drive to Plettenberg Bay, yet again via
the most coastal way, spend a night there and continue to Addo
National Park for the next three nights and do some safaring. From
Addo we would u turn back, spend one night in Tsitsikamma NP and
continue on a new route, route 62 to Oudtshoorn to see some meerkats!
Then we'd head back to Cederberg to go more climbing. BUT instead of
the last part of going back to Cederberg directly, we decided to
continue a little bit longer with the safaris, since there was plenty
more to see. We booked flight from CPT to Johannesburg, booked an
amazing all inclusive safari in the Madikwe Game Reserve and would
also spend one night in Pilanesberg NP. THEN we would head back to
CPT and to Rocklands for some more climbing. Sounds good hey!?
So we started off early from
Traveller's rest, and enjoyed a lovely lunch of something completely
else than the stuff we had already gotten sick off at Rocklands :D We
drove the super scenic coastal route and were amazed by the beautiful
blue ocean and the humongous waves. Hermanus was a cute little town
right next to the sea. Our Airbnb was supercosy and luxorius plus
very nicely located in the center! We took a walk by the long coastal
walk way, admired the crashing waves that spilled over the cliffs and
found us a whale watching trip for the next day! It would start at
8.30 in the morning so we went for a nice dinner in a popular seafood
restaurant and then called it a night.
Coffee and croissants to go and off we
went with the boat! Our group on this nice yacht like whalewatching
boat was a mixture of South Africans, Chinese, Indians and some
others. Like always on these trips, you would have some pretty
hilarious characters onboard. I will not go more into detail but some
stereotypes just live on :D
Very early on we saw a few whales, a southern right whale (SRW) and a Bryder's whale but from some distance. The sea was pretty calm and the sun was shining but the wind always makes it chilly to be out on the deck. Luckily we were well prepared. We drove quite long without seeing anything until the guide spotted something at ”11 o'clock”. There it was, a southern right whale, chilling in the sun! We slowly moved closer, not to scare the big beast away, but it wasn't afraid. And suddenly there was another one. And another one! And two more at 3 o'clock!! The boat was surrounded by six whales, mostly the SRWs and one shyer Bryder's whale. It was hard to choose where to look!
Very early on we saw a few whales, a southern right whale (SRW) and a Bryder's whale but from some distance. The sea was pretty calm and the sun was shining but the wind always makes it chilly to be out on the deck. Luckily we were well prepared. We drove quite long without seeing anything until the guide spotted something at ”11 o'clock”. There it was, a southern right whale, chilling in the sun! We slowly moved closer, not to scare the big beast away, but it wasn't afraid. And suddenly there was another one. And another one! And two more at 3 o'clock!! The boat was surrounded by six whales, mostly the SRWs and one shyer Bryder's whale. It was hard to choose where to look!
The bravest and the most curious one
started coming closer and soon it was playing with us, diving around
the boat, below it, showing it's tail and fins and white spotted
belly. It took it's nose up, checked us out with its tiny eyes and
just made big show! It was so close that we could've touched it right
there and then. One of the most memorable moments was when the whale
went on its way around to the back and the whole other group of
whalewatchers were chasing it around the boat, me and Chris stayed at
the front, awe-amazed by what we just saw. We were just looking down
when the whale suddenly appeared below the boat. There we were, just
the three of us, hanging out for a bit ;)
But the show wasn't over, not even
nearly. We joked that ”the only thing missing now is that one of
them starts jumping”. And what do you know: a moment later our
guide shouted from the speaker that he had spotted a breacher! When
whales jump, it's called breaching. There's is no apparent reason why
they do that but this one wasn't bothered by the fact. It jumped
three times out of the water and landed again with a big splash!
Unfortunately it was pretty far so it was hard to get a video but
with the bare eyes it was clearly visible.
When SRWs are seen in group, it usually
happens during the mating season. Two of the whales were indeed
closely together, sunbathing and flipping their fins, like dancing
slowly around each other. We were admiring the sight when a little
seal joined the party! The seal started diving, jumping, showing its
flippers too around the two whales, as if saying ”watch me, I'm
here too!”. And as if this all wasn't quite enough, a pod of
dolphins came jumping around the boat. They guided us when we started
our way back to the harbour. This was definitely one of the most
incredible experiences of my wildlife watching history.
On the same day, after an incredibly
good breakfast, we continued driving down towards Plettenberg Bay. We
arrived there quite late but again found ourselves in a super great
Airbnb that felt almost too luxurious.
The next day we decided to continue our
animal experiencing, this time with monkeys and birds. There's a
Monkey Forest, a 12-hectare sanctuary for monkeys that have been
saved from the zoos or private homes. There were I think about 11
species of monkeys and apes from different parts of the world, now
living in harmony, being fed but being otherwise free. They could
leave the place (there were fences but just to keep other animals
out) if they wanted to. So we saw many many quite monkeys and apes
from spidermonkeys and gibbons to howler monkeys, ringtailed lemurs,
cappuchins and others. Check the pics, they were pretty cute ;)
With a combined ticket we could also visit a beautiful free flight bird park with the most amazing birds. I love them birdies and cloud forest type of settings so these kinds of places always feel like peaceful havens to me.
With a combined ticket we could also visit a beautiful free flight bird park with the most amazing birds. I love them birdies and cloud forest type of settings so these kinds of places always feel like peaceful havens to me.
Next up was Addo but more on that later
;)
Check the videos below (you can see all of them by clicking the little arrow on the right side of the video) :)
Check the videos below (you can see all of them by clicking the little arrow on the right side of the video) :)
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