sunny sunday fishing hole (muizenberg)

The trip to the whale watching, beach walking, rock fishing, surf capitol of the Western Suburbs of Cape Town.

Jennifer and I decided to go out fishing today, which was more of my inclination, but Jennifer thought it would be fun too, partly due to the awesome weather (65 and sunny)--so we set off to find a fishing hole on the rocky shoreline near Kalk Bay.  After searching a few recommended locations we decided the boardwalk near Muizenberg would be our best chance of having a good time.  It turns out we were right about the destination, but the fish were not hungry.

Besides being our first oceanic fishing trip--we tried once two weeks ago in an inland lagoon--it was our first time exploring the surfing beach of Muizenberg.  The surfers were out in full force as there are usually hundreds of individuals in the water at any given time.  We were astounded by the beauty as we looked across False Bay at snow-capped mountains and out into the bay where Southern Right Whales were playing on the surface.  We saw many whales breach and one of them we are pretty sure was a juvenile--they're in the birthing season now.  On our walk back to the beach after fishing I looked down and saw an abalone shell.  Abalone are extremely rare and are illegal to take from the water, but this was just the shell, so I picked it up and brought it home.  Abalone is very popular in jewelry because of the iridescent shine on the inside of the shell.  In addition to being beautiful it is delicious, which are the reasons it is so rarely found.

Here are some pictures from the outing:

Hi there, this is the beach and you should notice the snow on the mountains that are less than 5,000 ft. in elevation.  Our weather was pretty cold and wet for a couple weeks (the entire time Adam and Lindsey were visiting)

Climbing through the rocks; all part of the adventure!

Here are the tidal pools we walked through to make a few casts.  Plus awesome mountains in the background.

Here is me trying to get as much distance on my cast as possible.

This is the view towards Kalk Bay and Simon's Town.

It is refreshing to get doused in a few waves.  I choose my standing rocks wisely.

Very wet and cold.  Good thing it was sunny out.

day trip whale sightings! (hermanus)

A couple of weeks ago we drove to Hermanus, a town east of Cape Town on the coast of the Atlantic (still not as far as Cape Agulhas, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet) that is famous for whale sightings. Our roommate Patrick, Jim and I made a fun party, which was good because the 2-hour drive there and back made for a long day!

We stopped for a couple of wine tastings on the way, and really enjoyed the winding drive along the coast. The weather was pretty miserable, though, spitting rain and cloudy all day (except for a few "sun breaks" when we saw the whales!) so we'll have to repeat the trip on a nice day as the views across False Bay and over to Cape Point should be incredible.

Standing on the shore on some cliffs above the bay, it was pretty impossible to miss the whales. They came within a few hundred yards of the shore, and were very active. We saw side fins and tail fins, blows and baby blows, and Jim even saw a breach (I missed it). We captured quite a few on camera with our long lens.

A rainbow above the bay

Roadside baboons on the coastal drive. Babies!!

A view of some of the nearby vineyards

wine and hiking (franschoek)

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I took a day trip to Franschoek, about an hour outside of Cape Town. Our friends Nikki and Andre had been there on their honeymoon last winter, and Nikki told me it was one of her favorite places near Cape Town, so we chose it over the closer Stellenbosch for our first day at the wineries.

Nikki was right - the scenery was absolutely stunning. We decided to go hiking while we were there, so we didn't get to try that many wines, but the hike was the highlight of the day.

We started out at Dieux Donne, a winery up on a hill overlooking the valley, and continued up the road to Franschoek Pass. We didn't have a map of hikes, so we were sort of flying by the seat of our pants. After checking out a trail off the side of the road, we spotted a more "official" spot to start a hike - complete with a parking lot - and set off on a beautiful hike up the back side of one of the mountains framing the valley.

Enjoy the views :)

Enjoying our wine at Dieux Donne with pretty great views already.

The panoramic view :)