Agulhas, Hermanus & Franschhoek.. Oh My.

After visiting the Cape of Good Hope, and the Penguins, it was time to head out of Cape Town.

We drove down along the coast, through improving weather, to Cape Agulhas – the Southern-most point in Africa. We were surprised by all of the houses along the way – there are all sorts of smaller towns and such along the way which we later found out were summer homes and communities. Some of these houses are quite large. At the same time, we saw a lot of ramshackle buildings that – on the outskirts of Cape Town for intance – go on for miles and miles.

We spent the night in the town of Hermanus, along the coast in a backpackers place – it was really nice for a backpackers place. They had lounging areas, a BBQ area, a firepit, lots of picnic tables, a bar, etc.,

Hermanus is a tourist destination as its bay is visited in winter by whales (though we are about 1 or 2 months to early for that). They are also close to Gansbaai – which is the launching off point to visit “Shark Alley.”

Shark Alley was our destination for the next day. We boarded a fairly large speedboat/small fishing boat and head out in rough seas (10 foot swells) for about 30 minutes until we reached a pair of islands just off shore. Similar to the Faralon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, they attract lots of seals and sea lions, and similar to SF, they in turn attract sharks.

The plan was to get in some wetsuits and get into a cage attached to the boat and watch the sharks from under water, but unfortunately the rough seas in combination with the 30 minute wait, anchored, before the sharks arrived, proved to be too much for our stomachs. One hour in those rough swells, with 25 people crowded onto a boat, just sitting anchored rocking back and forth – in quite large swells.. well… Neither of us was able to make it under water, and we instead spent the time on board in the “VIP lounge” (read: the front of the boat, leaning over the rail).

We were disapointed not to see any of the sharks up close but hopefully our future wild animal encounters will go a little better. Back on land we had some tea and eventually started to feel better.

Yesterday we drove from Hermanus up to Franshoek, taking dirt back roads most of the way there. Along the way we passed a great little winery – Beaumont Winery – this being the S. African wine region. We had some tastes and bought a couple of bottles before heading on.

In Franshoek we stayed in a really nice B&B and spent the afternoon chilling out. In the evening we went to a super fancy winery for dinner and had a great meal accompanyied with good wine.

Last night the rains returned in strenght, ensuring that we would leave Cape Town without seeing Table Mountain. Sure enough the whole drive back to Cape Town was cloudy or raining and while it hasn’t rained since we’ve been here in Cape Town, the cloud cover remains. We returned our rental car, checked in to our next fancy hotel (the Dunkley House) and aer contemplating what to do with our remaining time in S. Africa.

Tomorrow it’s off to Namibia – we fly to Windhoek and then rent another car for the drive out to Swakopmund along the Skeleton Coast.

2 Replies to “Agulhas, Hermanus & Franschhoek.. Oh My.”

  1. I’m really enjoying following along, man. Too bad about the weather and the rough seas. Could you FedEx me some of that Indian food? 😉

    Stay safe.

  2. I’m really enjoying following along, man. Too bad about the weather and the rough seas. Could you FedEx me some of that Indian food? 😉

    Stay safe.

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