One of the excursions that we had pre-booked for Day 4 in South Africa was a Whale Tour with Southern Right Charters in Hermanus. However, sadly the weather caused the company to cancel the boat trip out of safety and once we saw the waves we felt very thankful. Instead of a half day boat tour, we drove the gorgeously scenic drive along the coast until we reached Stony Point Nature Reserve also known as Betty’s Bay to see wild African Penguins!!!! Penguins have always been one of my absolute favorites and seeing them in real life, in the wild for the first time, brought forth all the emotions I could have expected. So special! What I wasn’t counting on was falling in love with a new species I didn’t even know existed – the Rock Hyrax, or my favorite name – the Dassie!!! So stinking cute and the only souvenir stuffed animal I came home with for myself because I am now obsessed!
Betty’s Bay and the potential of seeing penguins and whales finally got me to use my good camera equipment that I had lugged all the way to Africa. Unfortunately, though, I did not bring my huge zoom lens that day which ultimately cost me getting any good photos of the whales, but lesson learned and the mental photos I took and the experience I had is going to stick with me forever. Up until now I have only shared iPhone photos, and this will be the first post that I’ll have a combo of iPhone 12 Max Pro and Canon 80D images.
After spending the morning with penguins and dassies, taking photos of the animals and each other, we hopped back in the car and headed to Hermanus to look for Whales… and we were not disappointed!
I could have stared into the horizon looking for breaching whales for the rest of my life. What a beautiful windy, chilly day to witness some of the most gentle and amazing creatures on this planet and to top it off we saw the biggest pod of wild dolphins I have ever seen and MORE DASSIES!
We enjoyed an excellent late lunch at the Burgundy Restaurant and did some local souvenir shopping before heading back to the hotel for the night. It was time to say goodbye to the Cape Town area because in the morning we head back to the airport for the smallest flight of the trip – next stop is Skukuza where we officially enter Kruger National Park for the remainder of our Africa Adventure! Stay tuned…and we hope to see Cape Town again someday!
Did you miss any of the previous posts?
Read our full trip Itinerary here!
Read Day One – Germany here!
Read Day Two – Cape Town here!
Read Day Three – Wine Tour here!
*** All photos taken on iPhone 12 Pro Max, Canon 80D or Insta360***
Love this🥰