Jolly up the Klein River on the African Queen

On the African Queen

We spent part of this past week­end in Hermanus for a friend’s birth­day and on Saturday after­noon found ourselves on the way to Stanford for a jolly up the Klein River on the African Queen!

The African Queen is a double decker boat and was first launched nearly ten years ago.  The lower deck fea­tures braai facil­it­ies, wooden tables and seats up to 16 people.  The upper deck is equipped with plastic fur­niture, seats up to 24 people and has an area of shade ... Continued

Winner 3 Nights in the Cape's Whale Watching Capital — Hermanus

CONGRATULATIONS to Elizabeth Groenewald of South Africa who has won a 3-night stay at 138 Marine Beachfront Guesthouse in Hermanus on the Cape Whale Coast. This lux­uri­ous, upmar­ket guest house is situ­ated right at the seafront – any closer and you’d have a whale in your bath! The prize includes accom­mod­a­tion for 2 people shar­ing for 3 con­sec­ut­ive mid-week nights in a super­ior room over­look­ing the waves, scrump­tious break­fasts, with a menu that changes daily, a bottle of local estate wine on arrival and a pic­nic lunch to enjoy on the beach in front of the guest house.

Elizabeth, your voucher is on its way. Please con­tact 138 Marine Beachfront Guesthouse to redeem the voucher (valid until 30 September 2010). We’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay! Continued

Win 3 Nights in the Cape's Whale Watching Capital — Hermanus (closed)

Win a 3-night stay at 138 Marine Beachfront Guesthouse in Hermanus on the Cape Whale Coast. This lux­uri­ous, upmar­ket guest house is situ­ated right at the seafront — any closer and you’d have a whale in your bath!

Valued at R6000, the prize includes:

• accom­mod­a­tion for 2 people shar­ing for 3 con­sec­ut­ive mid-week nights in a super­ior room over­look­ing the waves
• scrump­tious break­fasts, with a menu that changes daily
• a bottle of local estate wine on arrival
• Continued

I ♥ Hermanus because ...

I ♥ Hermanus

Hi, I’m Carole, Manager of Whale Cottage Hermanus in Hermanus on the Cape Whale Coast.

HERMANUS IS BEST KNOWN as offer­ing the best land-based whale watch­ing in the world.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Gearing’s Point, with the Whale Crier, whose job it is to blow his kelp horn as soon as he spots any whales in Walker Bay, a bril­liant idea of the late Jim Wepener.  He is a unique whale crier, one of a kind in the world.
THE BEST PICTURES OF Southern Right whales can be taken at Gearings Point, some whales com­ing very close to the cliffs and the cliff path.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS CAN BE TAKEN AT Grotto Beach and Voelklip, of beach lov­ers enjoy­ing them­selves, and of whale moth­ers and their albino babies lying gently in the sea, or breach­ing, a most spec­tac­u­lar sight when they pull their heavy weight out of the water, express­ing their exuber­ance ... Continued

Food & Wine Market at Hermanuspietersfontein

This is a pop­u­lar mar­ket on a Saturday morn­ing for res­id­ents of Hermanus and the sur­rounds. Its set­ting is the Hermanuspietersfontein Wine Cellars at the Hemel en Aarde Village closest to Onrus, and if you're not there to pick up the weekend's nibbles and nosh, then you're there for break­fast with friends. It's a mar­ket in much the same vein as the Neighbourgoods and the Earth Fair mar­kets in Cape Town, although on a slightly smal­ler scale. It can get busy though, so you might want to get here rel­at­ively early. The mar­ket opens at 09h00 ... Continued

A stay in Vermont

Vermont

Tell people that you're on your way to Vermont and many give you a puzzled response. They obvi­ously are not expect­ing you to go all the way to America for the week­end, but whilst their brains are whizz­ing around try­ing to place the town on a map, I res­cue them and explain that it lies close to Hermanus. The relief is palpable.

Acquaintances of ours have a wee cot­tage set in the heart of Vermont's 'old' quarter. After stay­ing in the town twice now, and famil­i­ar­ising myself with its streets, I have divided Vermont into the 'old' and 'new', or 'east' and 'west' quar­ters for my own reas­ons. The east or old side is rel­at­ively con­ser­vat­ive with smal­ler homes and pretty gar­dens, whilst the west suf­fers from a ser­i­ous case of 'my house is big­ger than yours' syn­drome (although there are obvi­ous excep­tions). Continued

Whale Photographs

Our photo of the day is in fact two pho­to­graphs, both of which are of  south­ern right whales taken near Hermanus, South Africa. The pop­u­lar resort town of Hermanus has gained world-wide recog­ni­tion as the world's fore­most land based whale watch­ing des­tin­a­tion so if you are plan­ning to visit South Africa and want to see the whales, head to Hermanus for a front row seat! Continued

Brides to be — meet Aleit at Kennedy's Wedding Indaba

The first of its kind in the Overberg, this is a wed­ding expo with a dif­fer­ence. Get to Kennedys Beach Villa on the 22^nd August to learn from the best of the best in the Cape Town Wedding industry! Continued

Events in August

If you’re look­ing for things to do this August, we’ve selec­ted a num­ber of the events hap­pen­ing in South Africa this month to get you out and about ...

Hermanus Kalkiefees

The Hermanus Times Kalfiefees is tak­ing place from Thursday 6 August to Monday 10 August, bring your kids and their grand­par­ents and make this a week­end to remem­ber because there is some­thing for every­one. This week­end cel­eb­rates the arrival of the Southern Right Whales to Hermanus, come and hear the Hermanus Whale Crier who will let you know exactly where the whales are spend­ing their time — his rounds are from 10h00 to 16h00.

There are a num­ber of activ­it­ies and pro­duc­tions planned over the week­end to keep you and your fam­ily enter­tained. The costs for these pro­duc­tions start at R30 and go up to R80 per per­son. Some of the line up this year includes Chris Chameleon, opera arias per­formed by Magdaleen Minnaar, Elizabeth Frandsen and Aubrey Lodewyk, jazz and blues music from Blues en Susters as well as a few com­ed­ies and plays to lift your spir­its ... Continued

Hermanus Whale-Crier

Whale Crier

Until fairly recently it was unknown to all but loc­als, but men­tion the small South Africa coastal town of Hermanus any­where in the world today and someone will have heard about the vil­lage, and no doubt, the whales. Whales are one of the most pop­u­lar and well known attrac­tions on offer in this small town, loc­ated nearby Cape Town on the east­ern coast of the Cape and have been instru­mental in trans­form­ing a now boom­ing tour­ist industry.

One of the most unique aspects of the Hermanus whale exper­i­ence is the whale crier, the town’s own “GPS” for the Southern Right whales that fre­quent its coast in droves dur­ing the months of June to September. The only one in the world, the ori­ginal whale crier, Pieter Claasen, an employee of the Old Harbour com­plex, took up his horn and began alert­ing tour­ists and loc­als alike to the whear­a­bouts of whales in 1992 as a means to attract tour­ism to the then little known town. Continued

Hermanus — The Riviera of the South

Hermanus

My first memor­ies of Hermanus are from high school hol­i­days, my school friends and I tak­ing the bus up the East coast for a week of get­ting ejec­ted unce­re­mo­ni­ously from bars for being under­age, scorned by the local girls for not being cool enough and raid­ing the liquor cab­in­ets of par­ents that were gull­ible and unfor­tu­nate to allow us to stay in their Hermanus hol­i­day homes. At around 115kms South East of Cape Town, or around an hours drive from the city centre, Hermanus, also known as the Riviera of the South, can be found. Once a sleepy little fish­ing vil­lage, this bust­ling town is now a pop­u­lar hol­i­day des­tin­a­tion, with high school stu­dents still mak­ing that self-same pil­grim­age every year.

Originally named Hermanuspietersfontein, after Hermanus Pieters, who made this idyllic seafront spot his sum­mer camp­ing area in the early 1800’s, the town only sprung up in the late 1800’s. The devel­op­ment boom, how­ever, is a much more recent devel­op­ment. With sev­eral well-known lux­ury hotels, gues­t­houses, self cater­ing houses and cot­tages, and camp­ing grounds, Hermanus has become one of the primary hol­i­day des­tin­a­tions for Capetonians, and an attract­ive option for for tour­ists want­ing to see a little more of the Western Cape. Continued

Whale Watching in Hermanus

Whale Watching

The Cape Overberg coast­line (or "Cape Whale Coast") is without doubt one of the most excit­ing parts of the coun­try to view whales and few vis­it­ors leave dis­ap­poin­ted or untouched by the experience ...

In South Africa boats are not allowed closer than 300 metres from a whale without a per­mit and 50 metres with a per­mit. This of course does not stop the whales from com­ing closer to the boats, which they very often do. Approaching whales is done quietly, without motors and at ‘no wake speed’.

South Africa is the only coun­try in the world, to date, with an estab­lished envir­on­mental court where poach­ers of pro­tec­ted mar­ine spe­cies are tried for their offences. Continued