I give you whales...

From behind, there was this...

Glencairn Station

The train runs from Cape Town station, through the suburbs and then from Muizenberg (see previous post) it travels along the coast to Simonstown, which is the end of the line.

To the left there was this... Muizenberg, St James, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek...

And ahead... well, there was this. Which is why we're all here, isn't it...

The great whale race...

Last one round the marker is krill!

Heavy breather...

Now where did she go...

I could have sworn I saw here here a moment ago...

Come here, darlin', you know you wanna...

Blogger's note: Did I mention it's the mating season...

Getting saucy...

Why do men always fall asleep afterwards?

Zzzzzz....

Some general frolicking...

It's a whale of a tale...

Flipper flapper...

No, it's not a shark...

Here's lookin' at you, kid!

Big momma...

Fins and fun...

Sunday cruisin'...

And here's where you get the bird's eye view. The whales really were no more than 100 - 200 meters offshore. Cool, huh?

Next, we'll do penguins...

And, then we'll do what's just happened in my garden... Yeah, I'm a godmother! To 19 small fluffballs... It's the first guinea fowl hatch of the season, and they're all in my garden! I've turned into a real mother hen!

It's a tough life...

And herein lies the tale of the strange balance/imbalance of life in South Africa...

It was another hellish day in Africa... as an old friend used to say. It's a tough life but someone has to do it, as another friend said.

It was one of those Sundays filled with blue skies, sunshine, whales, penguins, good food and more sunshine.

And all of it took place only 15 minutes from home. Seriously. No schlepping off to Hermanus to watch whales. We were in fact just planning a short trip down the coast to commune with the colony of African Penguins - and then we saw familiar splashing in the sea...

It turned into a wonderful day, which looked like this:

Above Muizenberg - a seaside suburb frequented by surfers and sharks...

Muizenberg, Surfer's Corner and the Old Railway Station

A Sunday scene of yachts and whales...

It makes for a whale of a tale...

Getting up close and really personal...

Food on the wing...

Rockpool dreams

The southern Cape Town coastline - the peak in the distance is Muizenberg Peak (see first pic)

African (Jackass) Penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony

Boulders Beach, Simonstown (Simonstown is the southern most suburb of Cape Town)

And then we wended our way back home.

Nothing like a plate of antipasto misto and a sunny garden in which to enjoy it...

Now, there are huge numbers of whale pictures, penguin pictures and a few landscape shots. Do you want to see more? Especially the whales and penguins? The whale shots are the best I've managed to get so far, I think.
If you're up for more, let me know.

A Whale of Tale... or the Tail of a Whale...

It's that time of year again, when the Southern Right Whales arrive at our southern shores to mate and calve. You'll have got plenty of this from me last year, but, hey, can one ever really get enough of these magnificent creatures? Since I'm not given to repeating my words if I can help it, I suggest you take a look at last year's post to get more on the whale story. What can I say, it's been a long day out, I'm tired and my eyes are sore from squinting at bright and glistening sea.

So we went here...
Walker Bay, Hermanus

To do some of this...

Well no, not exactly like that... because we're a bit wussy...
We prefer to stay on terra firma.
(Yar! Landlubbers!)

Ahr, thar she blows...

Coming to getcha!

Him and her, shall we, dear?

Starting to breach...

Splash! breach all over

Whole whale

Whale tales, I mean, tails...

Tail of a whale

Whale of a tale

Who goes there?

Sky hopping

The whole whale

It's really hard to give you a decent indication of just how enormous these magnificent creatures are. Just think... very, very much bigger than an elephant. Or think, something like an iceberg, what you see above, is just a small indication of what's below.

Just floating on my back...

Now rolling over

Fins for the memories...

And because I can never get enough of a good thing, I plan on going back in a week or two's time!

Whale Songs

Continuing the phoktober theme...

Last week I promised I'd try to get some whale shots... They're not brilliant and now the shopping list has been lengthened to include a powerful zoom lens...

Each year, from June to November, the southern right whale comes to our shores. In the protected bays along the southern coast hundreds of whales mate and calve. Given the amount of splashing, bellowing and heavy breathing that was going on when I took these shots I think we can take a pretty educated guess that there was some rumpy pumpy taking place..

Significant Other has always said I call the whales and this time I believed him. We have never seen the whales come this close to the rocky shoreline before.

What I find so utterly tragic is that people are willing to hunt these magnificent animals - invariably using grenade-tipped harpoons which explode inside the animals. Increasingly the ban on whale hunting, which has been in force for 20 years, is coming under pressure with 33 nations supporting whale hunting and only 32 against it. However, in June this year the International Whaling Commission upheld an indefinite moratorium on commercial whaling by IWC members that had been in effect since 1986. Despite this, the decision will have no practical effect on the whale hunting now conducted by Japan, Norway, Iceland, and certain other countries. For more information on this, please see here and, for an excellent article on the subject of whale hunting go here.

I reach out

and you touch me

with my heart in yours

I call

and you answer me

with your soul

this is whale speak

and I know

Song of joy

my heart to yours

as you play

rolling in the waves

To listen to the sounds of whales, go here, and to read more about the southern right whale, go here.