GABBY - This morning, we stumbled out of Stumble Inn and set off for
Hermanus. Hermanus is most widely known
for its whale sightings. We wanted to go
there for the whales, but also for the Great White sharks just down the road in
Gansbaii. Ben was still a bit uncomfortable
driving on the left side of the road, I guess learning through observation, so
I hopped into the driver’s seat and drove south from Stellenbosch to
Hermanus. After weaving through some of
the side streets (a bit lost), we arrived at Hermanus Backpackers where we met the
owner of the hostel, Hayley. Hayley was
an incredibly energetic woman in her mid to late 40’s who had a spunky,
friendly, vivacious way of looking at life and interacting with people. She gave us a tour of the hostel showing us the
bar, braii area (South African BBQ), and our dorm rooms that we would be
staying in for free. We uncovered a deal
in the Coast to Coast backpackers’ handbook that allowed us to shark cage dive
and spend a night at Hermanus Backpackers for 995 rand. The rand to the dollar is about 8 rand to 1
dollar. We were staying a night and
shark cage diving for $113.59. Pretty sweet deal, with seemingly no catch! She shared with us some of her favorite
things to do in Hermanus, so we set off on an exploration day. Not 5 minutes into our hike along the
Atlantic Ocean did we see a whale. We
later discovered that it was a Southern Right whale. We never saw one breach, but throughout the
day we saw numerous fins, tales, heads, backs, and bellies. We walked along the rim of the ocean to the
center of Hermanus where we ate tapas for lunch. Ben insisted on getting potatas bravas, which
is a staple side dish in Barcelona and beloved on his travels there 4 years
ago. They weren’t the same, but still
tasty. We headed back to the hostel via the
cliff trail. The trail took us under
heavy canopies of leaves and vines and wove us around the contour of the sea
wall. We saw these really interesting,
big, red and black grasshoppers along the way which we named, Fred, Ethel, and something
else, not Lucy or Ricky. We tide pool
searched on the jagged rocks by the sea for awhile before heading back to the
backpackers and cleaning up for dinner.
We went out for sushi and ordered a bottle of red wine. We came back to the hostel and went outside
to have another drink and play some pool.
Ben whooped my butt as predicted.
Hopefully I will be able to practice up so I can beat him one day. We headed to bed seeing as we had a pretty
early, eventful, heart-pumping day ahead of us.
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