At last the rain has cleared and we spent a couple of days kayaking down a gentlish river in the Wilderness National Park. This was to prepare us for the sea kayaking we were about to do in search of Moby Dick in Hermanus Bay, the best place to see whales in South Africa, and in a kayak pretty close up (but without harpoons)
Of all the things I have done, kayaking messed my back up more than anything, but it was not this that caused the sea kayaking to be consigned to the same place as the bungee jumping. The problem as we observed it from the Hermanus cliffs was threefold and became known as the 3 R’s. Rough sea, Rocks, and Bloody whales. There was a 10 foot channel from the waterfront to the bay, and the whole of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to want to get through it. I swear that even an Olympic champion would have had difficulty and South Africa knows about Olympic medals (they only got one less medal than Togo in Bejing).
So we contented ourselves with the Pensioners viewing platform, and we have to say that we have never seen so many whales performing as though they were at a Water Park.
This leads us on to our admitted ineptitude with the camera.
It was simply impossible to anticipate where these whales were going to break the surface and we became the laughing stock of the pensioners of Hermanus, as we filmed minutes of open sea, and then switched off just as a 30 footer shot vertically up from the sea. It didn’t matter who had the camera this phenomenon kept occurring.
It reminded us of the old Cecil. B. DeMille story as he filmed a train crash over a huge viaduct. So expensive was the obviously single take, he positioned separate cameramen.
After the crash Camera 1 reported shutter problems, and a failure to record, Camera 2 had duff film, and camera 3 was overexposed. Camera 4 reported in with the words “Ready when you are Mr DeMille”
Janet was that cameraman, as testified by the dozens of photographs we have of re-entry splashes.
It was still a magical experience but the final leg of our journey took us to Stellenbosch to try out the wine tasting. After one night we decided to save this experience for when we have visitors since wine tasting is best enjoyed in the company of fellow bacchanals rather than coke light swiggers.
The journey into Cape Town was of course accompanied by cheering crowds lining the street and bunting strung across the major highways (just like Ewan and Charley) and we thank the people of Cape Town for their underwhelming response to our epic journey.
However Cape Town is still my favourite city….they have MacDonalds…and the weather is perfect.
| 