The Whale Whisperer (or the Vomit Comet?)

We spent an amazing 24 hours in and around Hermanus, the self-proclaimed whale watching capital of the world. This place lived up to the hype! After we arrived, we went down to the waterfront where we saw about a half dozen whales right off the shore, some no farther than 30 yards away! We saw a mother and calf swimming together and then the mother breaching at least three or four times. We also saw four full-sized whales swimming together, flipping their tails and rolling on their bellies. It was amazing to see these magnificent creatures at such close range right off the town pier!

This morning we rose early (Sarah woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep because she was so excited) to drive to Gans Baai to board the "Whale Whisperer" for a whale spotting cruise. Unfortunately, although the weather was clear, the winds were incredible--30 miles an hour or so. The skipper informed us before we boarded that the winds would create very choppy conditions on the ocean--and he wasn't lying. While we were in sheltered waters, we spotted a young whale, who enjoyed "sailing" (i.e. putting only his tail above water and cruising along on the high winds). He was curious and came right up to and under the boat. We also spotted two Great White Sharks swimming just below the surface. Our guide reminded us that our boat was rubber and asked if anyone wanted to go for a swim.

Unfortunately the water became increasingly rough from that point on. Several German ladies in particular were looking a bit green, and Thomas wasn't feeling too hot himself. The Germans and others (not Thomas) availed themselves of "seasickness bags" on the lower deck. At a particularly grim moment, as about a half dozen green passengers were vomiting profusely, a huge "rogue wave" smashed over the boat and soaked all the seasick passengers from head to toe. Unfortunately, the wave also got the bags wet, leaving no dry bags on board. Use your imagination for the horrific consequences. Needless to say, we quickly headed for shore, not even slowing down when we spotted a beautiful mother and calf maybe 100 yards away. Sarah showed little sympathy for the gastro-intestinally-gutted Germans (or Thomas). Snickers were heard from her direction.

After a VERY light lunch, we made the four hour drive to Wilderness, near the beginning of South Africa's famed Garden Route. While Thomas' left-hand driving is becoming more and more natural, Sarah still felt compelled to deploy her passenger-side "air brake" more than once. More on the Garden Route tomorrow, but a final comment on tourism here: the clerk at our hotel told us that he had seen 3-4 Americans at this hotel--in the past YEAR. This has been a common theme on our trip thus far--we have probably spotted in total about a dozen Americans in some of South Africa's hottest tourism destinations. Both of us have really been struck by the lack of Americans, especially compared to many of our other travels. We're still in serach of a good computer for picture uploads--high speed internet is not quite up to speed here yet (har har).