Hermanus

  Hermanus, South Africa
Sunday, February 12, 2006

Hello Everyone,

We left Capetown for a bit to check out a few other places in the area. The next place we went to is a small town called Hermanus. It is one of the few places in the world where you can do land based whale watching. The whales come very close to the shore. Unfortunately we are not here in the right season to see them. The town is nice enough to come here though at anytime.

This backpackers is called Zoete Inval. It is run by a Canadian, hurray! The lady is from Saskatchewan. my birthplace of all places. Our room was adorned with many things to remind of us home. A real maple leaf glazed on a plaque, a framed set of many Canadian stamps and a sunset picture with prairie grain elevators in the background. This was a very well run and clean place. It was more like a guest house, there was even an outside jacuzzi.

Our drive here from Cape Town was another scenic one. In particular the part from Gordon's Bay to Kleinmond is stunning. More mountains, cliffs, ocean waves and sandy beaches.





One of our highlights here was going with the backpack owner to the nearby township. She is very involved in many local community projects. One of them being a daycare/preschool in the township. Many children are left all day in the townships with no adult supervision. Any ages from very young toddlers to older children who should be in school but their parents do not send them for various reasons.

Others don't have anything constructive to do throughout the day or get any proper stimulation. Others will not do well if they do go to school when they reach the proper age because of lack of preparation. This particular school had two classrooms. One was for children very young, 2 to 3. The other class 4 and 5 year olds. It is full to capacity and can not take any more children. This one township alone could easily use 3 or 4 more places like this.



We went into the first classroom to see the 2 and 3 year olds. They were all sitting quietly as the teacher handed them out a small picture book. They were very cute and several of them took turns waving hello to us. It was valentine's day so the backpack owner brought an art project for the kids to make.

The second class had the older students. We sat and watched them work on a craft project as well. Then it was playtime for the older students. We all went outside to a play area that had a slide, some swings, a monkey gym set up and a few other play areas. They were all running around like crazy and having a great time. After play time all the students lined up at the kitchen door to get their lunch. It was a bowl of warm maize meal with some milk. The kids love it. They stood patiently and quietly in line. We were amazed at how well behaved they were for such young children. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the backpackers.

We set out on a drive to Cape Agalhus, the southern most point of Africa. The route we drove there was over half dirt road and not very pleasant. We drove past farmland area that was in the middle of no where and desperately dry. I don't know how anyone could live here. We finally made our way to a small town just prior to the Cape. We stopped at a sandy beach and watched some local boys swimming and playing amongst the fishing boats. Then we made our way to Cape Agalhus and the lighthouse. The area around Cape L'Agalus has very flat sand dunes with a small village built around them. The coastline is rocky and rugged. It was very windy here as well.


The exact spot of the southern most point is marked by a rock that has two signs on it. One is marking where the Indian Ocean is and the other where the Atlantic Ocean is. It was really neat to stand there knowing you are looking at the point where two major oceans converge. It was even stranger to now turn around at this point and look at the barren land and realize that the whole continent of Africa stretches out in front of you.



We decided to take a different route back to Hermanus, one that had paved roads. It was a nice drive through farmlands and small towns. We went out for Valentine's dinner to a restaurant in Hermanus. It was down on the harbour docks. The food was excellent. We had a great view of the city and of some bats catching bugs the entire time we ate our dinner, lol!

Onward to Simons Town