We´re on the road a bit over a week now along the east coast of South Africa and we´ve been closer to Wildlife than ever before. But before I tell you about it let me start at the beginning of our trip 8 days ago.
We started in Cape Town and only drove a bit more than 100km to a town called Hermanus. Hermanus is a absolute must if you want to see Whales from a very close distance without taking out a boat. Of course only when there is Whale season and like everywhere we go it wasn´t Whale Season. We´ve missed Whale season in Australia that many times I stopped counting.
But it doesn´t matter because Hermanus is a nice little town even without the whales. But still, everything in this town is about the worlds biggest mammals and they´re very proud of it.
The town is very laid back and was the perfect first stop. We explored the town a little bit before we had lunch. There is lots of things to discover and plenty of cafes and restaurants. There is a whale watching point from where you can see whales from a very close distance. They come that close that there is no need to go out on the sea with a boat.
Next to that whale watching spot is the old harbour of Hermanus as well as a museum where you can learn about the town, the harbour, whales and of course. Sharks are also pretty common here in the area and it´s absolutely normal if you see one. Unfortunately until today we haven´t seen any of them. But the old harbour was beautiful and great to take some photos.
After lunchtime and exploring the old harbour we went further south to Grotto Beach which is the beach of Hermanus but a bit out of town. It´s not really summer anymore but it´s still freaking hot here on some days. We thought that we go for a swim but all the shark signs and the fact that there was no one in the water made us change our mind. We only went for a little beach walk and I can tell you that this beach was one of the most beautiful I´ve seen and I´ve seen many.
You might remember one of my Portugal posts where I´ve found some slimy balls on a rock on the beach and did not know what it was. It´s sea anemone and on this beach we found some that were "flowering".
From here we went straight to our accommodation for the first night. Planning a 3 weeks road trip upfront is not easy especially when it comes to accommodation. We picked a farm stay 60km further out of town as we wanted our quiet.
We wanted it quiet and we got it quiet. I don´t think that it does get much quieter then this place. After a few kilometers dirt road we arrived at the farm and were welcomed by one of the most aggressive snakes in south africa, the Puff adder. Just when we arrived some guys working on the farm catched the snake to release it in a nearby forest later on. What a welcome. We love things like this, that´s pure wildlife.
While the property and our own little cottage looked absolutely amazing, we would get a surprise later that day. Because even with good reviews and awesome looking photos there is always still the possibility that something goes wrong, especially on a farm in south africa in the middle of nowhere.
After a beautiful sunset walk behind the farm and dinner on our own little terrace we wanted to go to bed. As we did we found out that the beds were already occupied by dozens of centipedes. We love nature and we love wildlife but this was a bit to much for us. The accommodation wasn´t really expensive but wasn´t cheap either and for this price I expect it to be clean. Anyway, we survived that night but checked out on the next day although we booked two nights and got back our money.
But this is part of travelling and for that we were rewarded a few days later with something better.
EDIT: Before we went on that sunset walk we read that there are plenty of Baboons around, these monkeys are common here and usually are not dangerous. But we also read that there is a Cape Leopard in that area and seeing the footprint below made us a bit nervous. Don´t know what it was but probably a Baboon, although it looks more like a footprint of a big cat :)
