Whale of a Time

We got back earlier today from a bit of time away - an all too brief overnight in De Kelders, near the whale-watching capital of the world, Hermanus. And, because whales know no boundaries, we were privileged to watch them cavorting and feeding just about on our doorstep!

Unfortunately, they were too fast for my camera's auto-focus many times, and I resorted simply to watching them do their thing. I'm amazed at the size of some of them, and the apparent joy they seem to have in hanging out where their food lives. There's the lazily-raised flipper, the slow turn-over, the breach and splash. As gigantic as they are, they're graceful and beautiful.

We weren't alone in the little holiday house (GE co-ords 34.560162° 19.356015°) - both my brothers and their families were there too, a rare chance for all of us to spend a lot of time together and catch up. Yes, I did have to please-explain as I blogged last week - but did more explaining about our schooling plans for the kid for next year than where I'm at in any other respects! And the explaining I did was just as hard as I'd aniticpated - still not sure I made much sense.

But we did hang out. We spent hours at a secluded and deserted cove (GE co-ords -34.564891° 19.354123°), the kids going nuts in the water, my brother's big dogs assuming they were fish and joining in the water fun - and one large watermelon, placed in the sea to cool down, slowly heading out on the tide... :-) Fortunately we retrieved it - the best summer food there is, and perfect for a warm afternoon in the sun. We spent a long and delicious meal around a table too - usually an annual occurance on Christmas eve, but good to do. Delicious food, great company, hilarious conversation - we had a super time. Add in a brilliant sunset, and it was basically perfect.

On the way back this morning we stopped off at a few more whale-viewing points. One very big guy was mere metres from the rocks, slowly swallowing his lunch as us curious types gathered with cameras and binoculars, from all corners of the globe (judging by the languages I heard spoken around me). The drive home yet again took us past mountains dripping waterfalls, along a lagoon or two, past the sea and over the pass to home.

We need to do this more often! It was a total soul-drench.