The Cactus Trip Diaries

We had planned two more Haworthia stops, S2828 and S2829 around Napier, the last plant stops of our trip before some more tourism – whale watching at Hermanus (S2830). Today our luck had run out.

Haworthia badia‘s type locality is at a now disused quarry (S2828) where it is said to be also threatened by an invasion of alien vegetation. We searched here for about 45 minutes but failed to find any Haworthia. It seems we should have looked higher on the hill.

As we surveyed the scene at S2829 my heart sunk – another side-of-the-road-stop, cottages near by. Again we could not find any Haworthia roadside of the fence and again, after the Swellendam experience, we didn’t really want to cross the fence. Perhaps our appetite for plant photography was finally satisfied – at least for now.

It seems that the whales were out at Hermanus (S2830). During his previous visit, they parked the car, looked over the cliff side and saw whales swim by right beneath them. Today they must have been on a weekend break, because although the sea-front was heaving with tourists, the seas stayed calm and smooth. occasionally a little cheer would go up as some one spotted a splash in the distance, but when others looked – nothing. These giants can sure hold their breath!

I managed about half a dozen shots, mainly of just missed tail flukes disappearing and giant splashes as the reaction time between spotting a whale jumping and pressing the shutter was just that little bit too slow. The last image was of a whale who seemed to cheerily wave at us before disappearing. Bye!!!

S2830 – whale waving