African Tours

In whale watching season, September-November, whales and their young come very close to the shoreline.

HERMANUS
Above the cove to the west of the Old Harbour at Hermanus there is a plaque marking the spring which attracted the first permanent resident, Hermanus Pieters, to what is now one of the most fashionable seaside and retirement resorts on the Cape coast. Pieters, a Hollander who came to the Cape early in the nineteenth century, was an itinerant teacher of Caledon farmers' children. He also had sheep and it was in moving them to fresh pastures that he came upon the enchanting bay-subsequently named after a Royal Naval officer called Walker - on which Hermanus was eventually established. The spring came to be known as Hermanuspietersfontein, a name which was also applied to the early settlement but shortened to Hermanus when municipal status was accorded in 1904. For more than a century the Old Harbour was the heart of a thriving fishing industry based on the large catches in and around Walker Bay. Its exposed position and tricky entrance held many a peril for the fishing crews, however, and it has long been replaced by a safer, more modern harbour further west. Among the attractions which make Hermanus popular are its fine, safe beaches; the Kleinriviersvlei Lagoon, with its opportunities for yachting and other water sports; the Fernkloof Nature Reserve in the saddle between Lemoenkop and Olifantsberg; the extensive cliff-top walk with endlessly unfolding vistas over the rocky coastline; the Rotary Mountain Way which runs along the heights above the town; and the bounty of Walker Bay which anglers share with professional fishermen.

CALEDON
The establishment of Caledon stemmed from the mineral springs, one cold and six hot, which generate 2 million litres of chalybeate, radioactive water a day at 49 °C and were at one time highly valued for their curative properties. The land on which they bubble to the surface at the foot of the 1 089 m Swartberg was granted to Ferdinand Appel in 1709 to provide accommodation for the sick and for visitors, but the first bath house was constructed only in 1797. A church village called Swartberg was established on the farm in 1810, and in 1813 it was renamed by Governor Sir John Cradock in honour of his predecessor, the Earl of Caledon. A spa with a sanatorium and first-class hotel superceded the earlier amenities at the thermal springs early in the twentieth century but was destroyed by fire in 1946 and has not been replaced.

BREDASDORP
In 1837 a Dutch Reformed centre was established on the farm Langefontein and named after Michiel van Breda, a local farmer who had promoted the project and was also first mayor of Cape Town and a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly. Bredasdorp is now the hub of a dairy and wheat farming region, and principal town of Africa's southernmost district. The small but fascinating Bredasdorp Maritime Museum features many of the ships that have been wrecked on the region's notorious coast.

CAPE AGULHAS
The name stems from the Portuguese word for needles, because early Portuguese navigators discovered that their compass needles showed no deviation here. It is the southernmost point of the continent and thus demarcates the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. The country's second oldest lighthouse, dating from 1849, stands idle near the resort, having been replaced by one with a beam of 18 million candle power.

WHALES
They faced extinction as a result of gross overhunting just several decades ago. To quote one example, an astonishing 12 000 southern right whales were killed in South African waters from 1785-1805 - that's just 20 years! Whales still do not have a guaranteed future, but most whaling countries have agreed to a voluntary moratorium on whaling and, as a result, whale population figures are slowly rising. These days increasing numbers of people gather at suitable spots along the coast to watch and marvel at the world's greatest mammals.

Along the South African coastline good whale-watching spots have been linked together to form what is called the 'Whale Route'. Originally centred on Hermanus in the southern Cape (still the most popular spot for whale-watching), the route now extends from the West Coast right around to Durban on the East Coast, some 2 000 kilometres.

During the winter months, southern right and humpback whales swim north from Antarctic waters to give birth in sheltered bays and inlets along the coast. The third species to visit local waters, Bryde's whale, lives most of the year near the African continental shelf. The months from July to November are the whale-watcher's most rewarding time, although early arrivals are here by June and the last stragglers only leave in January. The greatest number of sightings occurs in the sweep of Walker Bay — about 150 southern right whales visit every year, some approaching within 10 metres of the steep seaside cliffs at Hermanus. Hermanus has become the whale-watching centre and has made the most of this natural bonanza by staging an annual Whale Festival.

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