The whales, the flowers, the ice cream...

Yes, I know I have been away for some time. Life gets busy and blogging ends up taking a back seat. I thought I would share with you my continued journey of discovering Cape Town. This is what I found lately.

The whales have arrived. I have never been on holiday at the right time to see the whales arrive on our south and southwest coasts. Now that I live here, it is fantastic. A quick 15 minute drive to St. James and Kalk Bay and I get to see them en masse. The Southern Right Whale migrates to our don't-even-stick-your-toe-in cold sea for food during the winter and spring. Our coasts are their mating and calving grounds. They migrate to colder food-rich waters near Antarctica for the summer. They must be the only animal I know that chases the cold. These guys are huge! 50 - 80 tonnes and 11 - 18 meters. Each. That's a lot of krill... It has been amazing to see them chilling and doing their thing.

It's also so nice that they are doing their stopover in Kalk Bay because there are all sorts of other goodies to do there. Turkish delight and chocolate chip ice cream - come on! That's a winner. Interesting curios, clothing and antiques and there are great places to enjoy a drink overlooking the Atlantic. I also found the best veggie guy around. He has a small stall selling fresh fruits and vegetables on the side of the road. Cheap, super fresh & yummy! Much better than Woolies. Way to go Harry. I will be back.


I also took a day trip to the West Coast National Park last week to see the wild Spring flowers. This is another one of those things that (shamfully) I had never done mostly because of the distance you need to travel to get there from Johannesburg and the crazy timing. You can only see these flowers for about 6 weeks of the year during August and September. It's a big thing when it happens. Millions of flowers bloom practically overnight creating endless fields of colour. It is so easy to take a trip through the flower sactuary, then go and sit on the rocks with your picnic lunch (defending it from eager seagulls) and enjoy the ocean view. It's pretty incredible!