Cape Agulhas

As many of you know, Sarah and I have the fortune of spending 4 and 2.5 months, respectively, in South Africa (SA). Much of our time is filled at our respective "placements" (as the social worker crowd likes to call them), while weekends are spent visiting the touristy hot spots. Other entries will follow documenting our school and volunteer organizations and involvement. This weekend we put our cameras in our bags, kept the maps in hand and rented a car to head off to Cape Agulhas. Our trip began with a 3 hr drive from Cape Town where we enjoyed breathtaking mountain passes and an incredible sunset as we escaped the traffic of Cape Town. As an aside, this entry will be full of photos so click on the photos to see them in full.

Cape Agulhas is the most southernly point of Africa where the Indian Ocean meets the Atalantic. It is a very popular place to visit for many reasons including whale watching and an endless 14km white sandy beach. As for us we avoided the main stay and ended up at the Cape Agulhas backpackers lodge, located in Stuisbaai about 5km west of Cape Agulhas (check out the website if you are interested in seeing photos of the lodge, rooms, etc). The first night we enjoyed a great night of drinks and braai (bbq that is a SA tradition). The photo to the left is one of Sarah, Ryan and Josh (our roomate) enjoying some bevs.

The following morning I woke up and went out "sport" fishing on the Indian Ocean (photos below) and had near encounters with a humpback whale, penguins, southern right whales and I caught my first marine fish, a small but powerful silver fish, which was smoked and prepared that night. Even Sarah, who usually passes on anything from the sea, enjoyed seconds and discribed the fish's texture as chicken with only a "small bit of the fish taste".

In Vancouver, Sarah and I had sworn that we would not go on a whale watching tour cuz it seemed too much like going to the zoo, complete with all the gawking tourists. Well during our first evening at the backpackers, the owner offered to us (as I commented) to go "sight seeing on the water" and promised us we would see whales. Well given how strong willed we are, guess who the first two people were to show interest... S and R.

So early afternoon the next day a group of tourists (I'm including ourselves in that group) met back at the bay and took off in the fishing boat in a very chilled environment and did some sight seeing. Below gives u an idea of how close we ended up coming to the whales. By far the highlight for me was seeing the albino southern right whale calf. We were told that typically there are only 5 albino whales in the world at one time, so it was a truely unique opportunity.

The remainder of our time was spent enjoying spectacular Struisbaai beach, Hermanus, (commonly referred to as the whale sight seeing capital of SA) and then we returned to Cape Town via the coast line of false bay and took in the picturesque cliffside overlooking Table Mtn. This being my first weekend out of the Cape Town area, it was a very relaxing holiday, with many adventures in SA to follow.

Additional Photos

The Southern Right whale is 11 - 18 metres long . An adult can weigh between 25 and 66 tonnes. These whales are peaking as they position themselves to effectively protect their young.

Southern right whale albino calf protected by its parents.

Enjoying breakfast at Struisbaai and the cliffside roadway back to Cape Town