A whale of a time

This past weekend, my study abroad program took us to Hermanus, a little town about an hour and half away from Cape Town. Because its FINALLY spring, its whale season. This means that the entire coast is dotted with whales who have come up from Antarctica for the nice weather.

I wasn't really expecting much because I hadn't done much research on where I was headed toward, but it ended up being one of the most beautiful places I've seen while in South Africa. 

It's a very touristy town, and is known for its shark diving and whales. 

Spring time flowers!

We went to Hermanus on South African Heritage Day, which is also known as National Braai Day (or national barbeque day). 

So, the entire town set up tents and grills and played music and hung out on the beach. 

Baby seal we happened upon!

Red cappucino. Rooibos tea latte with honey.  Rooibos is a South African tea that its known for. Sooo delicious. 

Seafood pasta with a view of the sea, can life get better?

This guy is the world's only whale crier. He walks up and down the coast and blows his horn when he sees a whale so everyone can rush to the shore to look. At this time of year, that's pretty much constantly.

There was a flower festival going on in Hermanus, which was cute but not not really my thing. The flowers were beautiful, especially the protea, but I can only look at flowers for so long.

Me and a few others who felt the same way about staring at flowers took a tuk tuk (preferred method of transport in Hermanus...more on that later) back to town to instead stare at whales. We walked down this little cliff path and saw about 5 whales playing in the water. 

Me, having a whale of a time. 

I wasn't very good a whale photography, but we saw a TON of whales. Pretty much every time I looked at the ocean, I saw a whale. They would leap out of water, flip their fins, do what whales do. They were so peaceful, as was the whole town. It was a much needed break from hectic city life. 

I love the Dutch style arcitecture in Hermanus. South Africa was largely built up in the 70s and 80s, which weren't the best time periods for architecture, but the Dutch style homes are one of the exceptions to this rule.  

Hermanus craft market. 

I'm not really contented to sit and look at the ocean all day, so I broke away from the rest of the group and wandered through out the town exploring. Hermanus is tiny, touristy, and quiet but I still liked wandering around a bit. I came across this adorable vintage shop.

This alley. 

This garden, where a wedding was taking place, but I was careful not to take any stalker shots of them on the other side of the garden.

This adorable little independent bookshop.

A typical Hermanus house showing its South African pride. 

Because it was national braai day, we cooked a big feast at our hostel. We over cooked, and ate about half the food that we prepared, but it was delicious. We had pap with tomato sauce, boerewors (South African sausage, typically made by Afrikaans farmers), salad, and rice with a vegetable curry. 

Tuk tuk, what tourists use to get around Hermanus. 

What's funny is that we actually saw a lot of baboons... 

On Sunday morning we woke up super early and went for a hike up to a lake in the middle of this valley. We walked out to a little stand in the middle of the lake...

The bridge on the way to the stand was almost there. 

This water was the coldest I'd ever felt, and that's coming from a girl who spent many summers on the coast of Maine. 

Glad to know that the watch out for the baboons sign was completely necessary.

Went back with some friends to get brunch on the coast and left most of the group behind to chill on this stand. 

It was a very relaxing weekend. This weekend, I'm going to Durban for a day, and then driving down the Wild Coast, the eastern coast of South Africa that is far more rural than most.