The Rhythm of My Story: Marine Big Five

One of the reasons we came to South Africa was to experience animals in the wild. We got to see the big five while we were on Safari -- rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant. What we really hadn't realized was that there is also a marine big five. Where we are now in Hermanus is known as the destination for whale watching. You can stand on the cliffs and watch them in the bay from June to December. Instead of a town crier they have a whale crier who stands on the shoreline and announces their location.

So after breakfast this morning we went on a whale watching tour. It began with a visit to the penguin hospital.

Then we were outfitted with life vests

and got onto this boat.

We came alongside the boat excursion that allows people to get in a cage and interact with sharks. They bring sharks to the boat by casting out lines with chunks of meat attached.

Then a Southern Right whale and her son were spotted. The mother was a brindle, which means she was born almost completely white and as she has aged her pigmentation has changed to gray. Brindles are rare and most of them are males, which made her an even more unusual sighting.

We watched them for a long time.

We saw one penguin swimming by itself in the ocean far from shore. Then we had a brief viewing of a humpback whale.

From there we went to shark alley, thus named because the sharks hunt from the easy pickings of thousands of seals that inhabit the nearby island.

We returned back to the harbor at an amazing and frightening speed. We were quickly herded off the boat so they could load on the next group of tourists. They fed us a warm bowl of soup and tried to sell us a video of our excursion. We saw four of the marine big five today. Surprisingly enough we didn't see any dolphins.

After our whale watching experience we headed to the old harbor area of Hermanus. We wanted to get dinner,

enjoy the public art

and take the cliff walk back while the sun set.

The dassies were out in full force and not the least bit shy. It turns out they are part of the rat family. Never thought I would find rats cute.

What I didn't know until I arrived here was that there are six floral kingdoms. Fynbos is the smallest and the only one found only in a single country. In fact, it is fully contained in the Western Cape of South Africa. It is one of the richest areas in the plant world. I can attest to the truth of that statement. Gayle and I are constantly stunned by the flowers here.