Whales and Winelands

The view from the whale watching boat

Sunfish! 

            Time for the last few days of news from here in South Africa! Friday morning there was an early 6 am start in the garage for another trip out to sea. That one only had two clients on it, so all of the volunteers got to go out on it. Harry left to head back home on Thursday afternoon, so there were twelve vols on that trip. We had a new guy arrive Friday, named Eric, who will be here for three weeks. He’s from France, making him the only one of the thirteen volunteers that’s not either British or American. On that first trip we saw that beautiful inquisitive female we’d seen on a few previous trips as well. We might name her if she keeps sticking around; she’s so cool to see and has very recognizable behavior. She loves gently bumping the cage with her nose, circling the boat, spy hopping, and hanging out around the stern of the boat by the engines.

            After returning from that trip, we got the boat restocked and ready for the next trip, then all the vols went to get ready for the whale-watching trip that we had planned for that afternoon. A little after noon, we loaded into the van and headed out. The company that did the whale watching tours is where Karla now works, the old White Shark Projects’ volunteer coordinator. When we arrived and saw her, Cake, Lizzy, Beth and I took turns giving her a hug. We spent the next couple of hours out on the boat following and watching dolphins, cape fur seals, African penguins, and even a Bryde’s whale! Another animal that we saw out on that trip that I really didn’t expect to see was a sunfish. I’d never seen a wild one before and didn’t even think they were found around these waters so seeing one come to the surface was really special!

            After getting off the whale watching boat we walked over to Oppidek, our favorite little pub in Gansbaai, and had an early dinner since we were all hungry. Some of the volunteers wanted to stay out at Oppidek and hang out after dinner since we knew we wouldn’t be going out to sea the next day, but I went back home with some others. I got in a little beach clean before the sun went down, then hung at home reading until the others returned.

            Yesterday we had arranged to go visit a couple of vineyards around Hermanus and the winelands and get in a few wine tastings since it was a no sea day. A few of the vols, including me, don’t drink, but we tagged along anyway to just hang out with people. So a little after ten, with Benz driving and Tom joining us, we headed out. We were out most of the day doing that- I’d almost forgotten how beautiful the winelands of South Africa are! We arrived home at about four- Loryn said that she was cooking a huge pot of soup up at the top house for dinner and we were welcome to join them for it, so we decided that’s what we’d do that evening. After I went out for a beach clean as usual, I joined everyone at the top volunteer house and we sat around eating soup and watching Harry Potter.

            Today there wasn’t a lot planned on the agenda. The weather was really nice but the swells were big, so it was a no sea day. Tom decided that since it was nice, sunny, and not too windy, we could go out and do- get this- a beach clean before lunch. As always on beach cleans, I kept an extra sharp eye out for rope and fishing line and collected that separately since there’s an organization based here in Gansbaai called Seven Seas Rope, that takes rope and fishing line found on the beach and turns it into bracelets that people can buy. After collecting it on every beach clean that I’ve done so far, I had a big bag of the stuff today for Tom to take to the guy he knows at the organization.

            Tomorrow there are two trips out to sea, but I don’t know yet how many spaces are available on them, so we’ll just have to wait and see. This post’s food for thought is a little different than most because it’s something that was said by the skipper of the whale watching boat that we went on: “Take a picture with your mind first. You can always download a picture or buy a postcard. You can’t download a memory.”