Day 9-10: Port Elizabeth - Hermanus
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
4
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Port Elizabeth / Knysna / Hermanus,
South Africa
Thursday, September 23, 2004
So the Base Camp Backpackers livened up a bit in the evening, possibly too much - not really into rock music! Plus I got moved to a dorm for the Monday night :O( Anyways, left there Tuesday morning thank god and made my way to Knysna where I arrived at about midday.
Stayed at the Knysna Backpackers which was a nice victorian house, luckily I had a single room which was lovely, not sure I'd have wanted to be in the dorms, one of them was practically a corridor!
Knysna is on a big bay/lagoon which is sheltered from the ocean by a couple of mountains which rise up either side of the inlet
Always a good time to have a hot chocolate
. In the afternoon I took the ferry to 'The Heads' which is where the lagoon meets the ocean. Was a very nice sedate trip and took a few pics...hopefully once I get to Cape Town I'll be able to get the pics uploaded to the net somehow so you can all see the amazing things I've seen over the last week or so.The backpackers had a 'Braais' in the evening which is basically a BBQ - really good grub. We sat on the veranda chatting and eating - but one thing i've noticed is that the nights get very very cold, I was freezing, had to wrap myself in a blanket when we were on the veranda.
The next morning after a good nights sleep I went and done some Quad Biking up and around the moutains. Was very cool - however I did manage to stick my heel in the back wheel whilst it was moving...the instructor did say not to stick your foot out but it's a natural instinct when you think you're gonna fall over!! Oh well....just a bit bruised and can walk so that's good. Got some great pics of me looking dead butch on the bike holding my helmet ;O)
Was picked up by the BazBus lunchtime to take me to Hermanus which is famous for all the Southern Right Whales which come mate in the waters around the bay
Hermanus whale watching
. Arrived at the Hermanus Backpackers at about 8pm - now this place was completely different to all the other places i've stayed, it holds 50 people and it was full for the night, people everywhere, unfortunately I was in a dorm again, 7 beds plus someone sleeping on a mattress on the floor!! Was really not impressed but in the end I actually had a good nights sleep (thanks to ear plugs!) - plus it was the first time I'd had to climb onto a top bunk since I was about 13....didn't tip over either which was nice. Chatted with some other english guys after arriving just chilling in the lounge.So as Hermanus is famous for it's whale watching I had to go out on a boat, which is what I done this morning - had visions of me spewing everywhere but took the travel pill and was fine...managed to find my sea legs. The boat cruised around the coastline looking for whales....I think we must have seen about 12 in total, just rolling around, breaching out of the water, the best bit was when one of the kept diving and showing his tale...got some fantastic pics of that so looking forward to putting them online. It was so cool....a couple came up right next to the boat, they're sooo big - about 11 metres long.
The poor girl next to me ran out of battery power for her camera...so she's taken my memory card and getting my pics put on CD so she's got some whale pics, even if they are mine, I'm not even going to charge for copyright ;O)
So that's what I've done today, it's lunchtime-ish and this evening I'm catching the Baz Bus to Cape Town where I'll arrive about 10. Then it's about 8 nights in CT then fly to JBG next Sat to stay with Derek for a night before flying to Perth.
