A friend's feeling a little jaded right now. Labour problems at work seem unsurmountable, the culture of entitlement, tension, & very real threat of physical violence has resulted in a desire to "chuck it all up", let them produce their own daily bread, & relocate.

Emigration's out… Wrong parents.

My friend, have a look at Ceres, unless I'm VERY wrong, this could be your salvation. It's hellova organised, peaceful, clean, quiet & quite White.
No desert dust either.
Just garden after beautiful garden, filled with flowers.

Leaving Ceres was easy.
I simply picked up a Giovanni's fish 'n chips, selected a lowish gear & rolled down Michells pass looking for a nice picnic spot…

Now THIS has to be "the Cape"…
Unmistakable.
Another, different, but stunning version of magnificent landscapes.
Vineyards stretching right & left as far as the mountains…
The horizon's invariably close. High too.
There's always a mountain.
Ceres's under the mountain.
When we got to Hermanus, it too was nestled between the mountain & the sea…
All the way there, Nyati drove beside, or in view of, mountains…

Very lekker,  the "Mountain truck" loved it… Mostly down hill too.

Then, around a corner & there it was…
Stretching out to the distant horizon…
The Indian Ocean…
Ooooh yeah…

I could see it, but couldn't smell it, all those bloody flowers had left me with hayfever.
Quick, into the blue & white box & down with a powder… Ahh Grandpa.

The Onrus caravan park was like Rocky bay at Pennington.  Right on the beach. Lovely.

A sign of things to come, I fear.
The bookings were heavy,  but Nyati's at home almost anywhere… Low trees excepted.
I'm going to have to make some sort of plan over the forthcoming holiday season… Any popular destination's going to be booked up… It looks like Nyati's going to have to find a bolt hole somewhere…
Somewhere, the hell out of Cape Town, that's for sure.
Up the West coast perhaps.

So… Hermanus.
I wonder how many of you, reading this, have been to Hermanus on a really perfect day…

Walked around the cliff edge path, idled on the benches, dozed in the sun & felt the magic of whales cavorting across the bay.
Impossible to ever know how many there were, 5… 50… 500, I hope.

Watching them reminded me of the time  Georgina accompanied me on the Aliwal Shoal dive boat, to familiarise herself with the on board procedures, prior to doing her open water qualifying dives.

Soon after launching the boat though the surf, "easy peasy", she'd done THAT often before, we came across a gigantic Southern Right Whale… "sailing".

The skipper had stopped well away from the animal & we piled into the water hoping to watch it diving.
Uh uh, it had no intention of going anywhere… Instead of diving away, it slowly swam directly towards us.

My wetsuit instantly warmed.

Like a block of flats, majestic, unhurried & with no hint of malice, the barnacle encrusted Southern Right passed within 3 meters of us.
We got pushed up against the boat by the bow-wave…
It was moving deceptively fast…Very big.
A force of nature.
An irresistible creature, watching us as it passed.

That moment certainly goes into the "took our breath away" column.

Today there were lots of them.  Right here, in full view of anyone who cared to look. 

I'm sure any of you who has been privileged to have experienced Hermanus & the whales like this, will agree.
We're blessed to live here.

Do they know it's full moon ?
Is that why they're so playful, so full of energy  ?
Horny, more likely.

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