Whale Watching

Our latest CIEE organized event was whale watching. On Saturday, we woke up a little earlier than normal for a 7:30am departure. Groggy and tired, we traveled a couple hours up the coast to a town called Hermanus. This town is located in one of the many bays along the coast called Hans Bay. From the town you can see whales breaching from the shore. It is a very Dutch town. I thought the town was interesting because it didn’t feel like any other town to which I had been thus far. Most of the visitors were white Afrikaans people. I was talking to Quinton our R.D. He mentioned that he hated the town because it reminded him of many towns that are like it: very conservative. He actually said that post apartheid he has been refused service at a restaurant because of his skin color in this town. It was amazing to me the emotion that was evoked by these memories. I had no idea, I just thought that it was a primarily Afrikaans town, but apparently many of these coastal Afrkaans places are still very conservative an prefer ethnic purity. I found this ironic because when given some free time, I went to a craft market in the town and what I found were many of the touristy African things. It just made me chuckle inside. Though, I did find that the market was not predominated by these “African” things and also incorporated some other craft market esque things like stalls selling homemade jams and so such. The town itself was very interesting in that it complicates even further the ideas and types of people within South Africa. It provides another layer of complexity to racial, ethnic, and other cultural questions with regards to South Africa.

Sorry I didn’t mean to be so long winded with that whole thing. I think it became more of a culmination of things I had been thinking about today. Anyways, the view from the town was spectacular. The sky was blue with no clouds in the sky. There was a breeze off the shore but it was refreshing. The air smelled of salt and fish and it reminded me so much of home. We sat on a pier for a little bit and saw a whale just off the coast blowing spray up into the air as it breached. It was absolutely beautiful. The picture is of me on the pier overlooking the ocean from the town!

Anyways, after getting some food in the town (Lane and I had already packed our own lunch which was a good choice because it was cheaper and from what we heard people had really bad experiences getting lunch) we embarked for what was supposed to be a 15 min journey to the other side of the bay where we would be doing the kayaking to find whale. Well about 45 min later we arrived at the beach (typical phenomenon as it seems while we are here). It was a very nice place that was clean and pretty. While we were waiting to go out on the kayaks we got to go swimming but you couldn’t go in past your thighs because the water was still a little cold. But Lane skipped rocks and everyone enjoyed the sun and the beach. The picture is of Lane is as we were sitting on the grassy patch above the beach and watching the waves and other people swim in the water (or attempt to swim among the frigid waters).


The kayaks that we took were double open deck kayaks. Lane opted for the back which was fine. We both knew how to steer but personally I don’t think that he was super confident in my abilities. Regardless, that decision came back to bite him in the butt. Apparently the kayaks balance weight distribution by allowing water in the boat. He was literally bathing in the frigid waters. Now, if I had sat in the back neither of us would have water but nonetheless I thought it was pretty funny. We went out in a group of about 20. We weren’t supposed to get closer than 300m away from a whale. Even if they started towards you, you needed to back paddle away to maintain the distance. Well that is harder than it sounds. We saw a mother Southern Right Whale and her calf. Apparently whales are very curious and the calf tried to come towards us and we kept having to move…reluctantly of course because you want to be close to the whales too. It was really fun and we actually were only about 60ft from the whale at one point before we made a real effort to get out of the way. Additionally we saw some seals(adolescent males) sitting in the water with their fins in the air to get some sunlight for warmth. I laughed, because it looked really funny; a whole cluster of them each with one fin out of the water.

On the way back Quinton (our RD) had taken his son out in a kayak just for a tour of the little cove and we intercepted them on the way back. Quinton was of course playing around and teaching his son a bad lesson by splashing water on people. Just for fun, Lane and I came up really fast behind him and I sprayed him (well actually drenched) him in water. His face was so great. He was so surprised and flabbergasted. I enjoyed it. Though, the best part was that he thought it was Lane who sprayed him and so in retaliation sprayed Lane. So in effect, I got away like a dirty little criminal and Lane was not so thrilled. Though in the end, I think I paid the price because I got a nasty sunburn on my back. I felt the repercussions of my deed for the next few days.

Anyways, that is it for now. I just had a biochem test yesterday and I need to go study for my next immunology test next Tuesday. I can’t wait for classes to end. I still have so much to do and classes are just frankly getting in my way :P