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The Hermanus

Hermanus has a twelve kilometre cliff path running from the new harbour to Grotto Beach. This unique stretch of the coast, the World Wildlife Fund has recognised  as the best land-based whale watching area in the world.
Each year, huge numbers of Southern Right whales begin to arrive in Walker Bay in July after their long haul from the sub Antarctic. The ocean giants, measuring up to sixteen metres long and weighing sixty tons, come to the Western Cape waters to calve and nurse their young. For 5 months, the spellbound audience watching from the cliffs is rewarded to an amazing display of water acrobatics.

Hermanus is experiencing a boom. In the past three years, hundreds of people have moved to this laid back part of the Cape. "There has been a massive influx of new permanent residents," says town clerk Thys van Rooyen. "But not just retired people. Families with young children have also been arriving to make Hermanus their home."
Entrepreneurial locals have been quick to take advantage of the crowds who flood into town for the whale extravaganza. Seven years ago, September was a low point in the town calendar. Although the whales were wallowing in Walker Bay, nobody made too much fuss of their friends from the deep. "It was the best kept secret of the Cape," smiles businessperson Jim Wepener. "Whale watching as a pastime was unheard of and when the September school holidays started, everyone left. This place became a ghost town."

Hermanus is one of the better known whaling spots in South Africa because if you mention whale spotting to people they say Hermanus to you, but yet they know nothing of whale spotting.

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