Oh, I could live here.

This past weekend was absolutely phenomenal! I’m so excited to share it with you.

We (all of the Interstudy students from both Stellenbosch and Cape Town) went to Hermanus for the weekend. Hermanus is located right on the beach about an hour and a half east of Stellenbosch. Because the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet at Cape Point, we were technically in the Indian. Hermanus is world-famous for its whale watching, and we certainly did a fair share of that. We stayed at the local backpackers, a very casual and homey place with a hammock, pool, and four pets (two cats, a hamster, and a dog who was on holiday). We could see the ocean from our window. It was magnificent. There was a French family staying there also, as well as some South Africans from around the country.

We arrived Friday night and settled in with a braai and some unpacking. The fun began the next day with a bang. After a 7:30 am breakfast, the first group went off to do some kayaking while the second group (that’d be mine) stayed until 8:45, then we traded off. Kayaking was so much fun, though slightly tiring on the arms. We made our way down the coast, then out to sea a little before looping back. The water was fairly calm, though we did toss a little in the waves. We stopped and a few of us jumped in (it was the Indian ocean, of course I jumped in!) and when I had finally gotten back into my kayak, the tour guide flipped it, along with my kayak-mate (Jenna) and our sunglasses. Unfortunately, I didn’t retrieve them, but oh well. How many people can say their sunglasses are now decorating the bottom of the Indian?

Promptly after kayaking, we raced our way down to the whale-watching boat we were holding up to go see some of the local whales Hermanus is known for. We took about a half hour to find them, and they were absolutely stunning. I think the captain said we found nine of them. They were Southern Right Whales, only found at the very bottom of South America, Africa, and Australia. They also are the only (or one of the only) species of whale that has two blow-holes, so that looked pretty odd. They got very close to the boat, as you can see, and it was breath-taking. Because we were in a whale sanctuary and very few people have permits to have boats there, we weren’t allowed to move while they were so close to us, so we sat, completely surrounded by whales, for about two hours. A seal came to see what all the commotion was, so I got a few pictures of him, too. On the way back, we saw quite a few penguins in the water, but when the boat got too close, they ducked under, so I didn’t get any photos of them.

The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing and recouping from the day. We had dinner at the backpacker’s that night after watching a movie. The next morning, at 6:45am, most of the group went off to Shark Cage dive, but I stayed back and slept in until 8am. The 8 of us that didn’t go diving had breakfast and then we went on an impromptu hike up through Baboon territory in the mountains of Hermanus. We went up to a little waterfall and hung out for a while. It was odd how similar it was to the hikes I’ve done in Washington, yet so dissimilar with the Baboon calls and indigenous plants. We hiked down and then went to the beach. It was amazing. There was a lagoon and the sand was incredibly soft beneath my bare toes. We kicked around a soccer ball and stuck our feet in the water. The beach was also both familiar and not, but I tried to stop comparing and just enjoyed the lovely day.

After that, we stopped in town. While a few people went in to get gelato, I stayed out and spotted the whales from the cliff I was perched on. Not only were they playing, but they were breaching, which is the technical term for when they jump out of the water. There were about 4 or 5 of them, all breaching. It was amazing. I snapped some well-timed shots of them half-way out of the water on their sides. There are a few hypotheses as to why they do this, but the two most probable are that they are a) trying to get the itchy barnacles off of their skin. That can’t be too fun to swim around with all the time, and b) that they are just playing and showing off for one another. Either way, it was very cool to see them jumping over and over again.

After we got back to the backpackers, the whole group drove up into the hills for some more fun. We split into two groups again, and while one group went quad biking, my group went paintballing. I was terrified, as I had never been hit by a paintball before. However, one of the guys that worked there fixed that and shot me in the calf, giving me my first bruise of the day. We split into two teams of three and played a few rounds which were really fun. I took out a few people of my own also, which was quite exciting. In fact, Hermanus Adventures (the “company” this was all through) got video of me creeping through the bushes and taking out Ouma, one of the Interstudy staff. Our last round was a “zombie” round, meaning that instead of being shot once and being out, you just keep going until you run out of ammo or are in too much pain. I got shot quite a few times in my thighs and also on my back and the back of my neck. It hurt a lot, and I have about 10 bruises to prove it, but I still had fun.

After that, we went quad biking. It was exciting, as I had never driven an ATV before, but I enjoyed it. Apparently I was on the fastest bike of the bunch, and I was quite enjoying myself. I was doing 50 kph (that’s about 31mph for you folks back in the states) and passing people, and I wish I could have gone faster. We drove through a bunch of vineyards and stopped when we found ourselves on top of one of the hills/mountains. We had a breathtaking view of all of Hermanus and the ocean all the way out until it met the sky. It was amazing. After that, we returned to “base camp” and then the whole group went back to the backpacker's to collect our things before heading off to Cape Town and Stellenbosch, respectively.

I can honestly say that it was the experience of a lifetime. The entire weekend was filled with exciting things that I have never gotten to do before, and I am thrilled that I get to say that I did them in South Africa. Next weekend is Robben Island, so be prepared for another update!