This is home. I live in Hermanus, and I have been coming to this stretch of coast for sixty years, since I was a small boy on the east cliffs.
Hermanus sits on a ledge of rock between the Kleinrivier mountains and Walker Bay, about an hour and a half from Cape Town. For most of the year it is a quiet seaside town of fishermen, walkers and people who came for a weekend and never left. Then, from about June, the southern right whales arrive, and the whole town turns to face the sea.
They come into the bay to calve and to court, often a stone's throw from the rocks, and you can watch them from a bench on the cliff path with a coffee in your hand. Further along the bay, at Sopiesklip, my father, my son and I have shared the same stretch of shore for three generations, and I still stop whatever I am doing when a whale breaches. I would love to show you why.
John Sparks
Walker Bay on film
A town with a story
Named for a teacher
Hermanus Pieters was a Dutch schoolmaster who came to the Cape in 1815 and taught the children of farmers around Caledon. He loved to camp beside a spring here by the sea, and the place became known as Hermanuspietersfontein. In 1902 the post office decided that was far too long, and it became Hermanus.
The whale crier
In season, the whale crier walks the cliff path with a horn made of kelp. Each call is a code that tells you where along the shore to look. He can tell you where. Whether they surface is up to the whales.
The southern right whale
Up to about fifteen metres long, with pale callosities on the head that are as individual as a fingerprint. The mothers bring their calves into the sheltered water of the bay, and few places on earth let you watch them this close from land.
The Old Harbour
Before the whale watchers came, Hermanus was a fishing village. The fishermen hauled their wooden boats up a slipway in the rocks, and the old boats are still there. The harbour is now a museum and a national monument.
Fernkloof
The mountain above the town is the Fernkloof Nature Reserve, 1,800 hectares of fynbos with more than 1,300 kinds of plant, among them proteas, pincushions and ericas, and paths to walk from the town straight up into it.
Heaven and Earth
Behind the town lies the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. In 1975 Tim Hamilton Russell planted vines here, and the cool sea air has since made it one of the finest places in the country for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Hermanus, the way I like it
The cliff path, early
We start on the cliff path in the morning, when the bay is flat and you can see the blows a long way off. I know which benches and which points the whales favour, and we take it slowly, with binoculars and coffee.
Out on the water
For those who want to get closer, we go out with one of the licensed whale-watching boats, which are allowed to approach the whales with care. On a good day a mother and calf will come right up to look at you.
Up the valley
Lunch in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, with a tasting at one of the estates I know well. It is ten minutes from the sea and feels a world away.
The beaches and the lagoon
Grotto Beach runs for kilometres towards the Klein River lagoon, with white sand and hardly a soul on it outside the holidays. In summer it is the place for a long walk and a swim.
The evening
We finish at the Old Harbour or on the cliffs as the light goes, with something good to eat and the whales still blowing in the dusk.
Photographs and videos to keep
Thirty-five photographs of Hermanus and Walker Bay, to view large and download, and the Walker Bay films on YouTube.
Open the gallery ↗The right cliff at the right hour. The whales decide the rest.
Before you go
Where
About 115 kilometres from Cape Town. We take the coast road past Gordon's Bay and Kleinmond, which is one of the loveliest drives in the Cape, and you are here in about an hour and a half.
When
The whales are here from about June to November, at their best in September and October. The Whale Festival is held at the end of September. In summer, it is beaches, walks and long evenings.
Bring
Binoculars, a windproof layer and good walking shoes for the cliff path. The weather on the bay can change quickly.
Where to stay
The Marine on the cliffs above the Old Harbour, Harbour House beside it, or The Windsor, where the whales pass beneath the windows. Grootbos is forty minutes along the coast.
Pairs well with
A marine safari on the bay, great white shark diving at Gansbaai, and the K3 zip line near Caledon.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons licences. Photographers are credited in the gallery. The films are our own.