World-class properties an international drawcard

Writer: Stephen de Stadler Managing Director Fine & Country Hermanus, Arabella and Kleinmond.

The mournful tones of the kelp horn as blown by the Hermanus Whale Crier have been heard on a more regular basis over the past week. Because sightings of whales have not been as frequent as they have in previous years, we also rushed down to Gearing’s Point to try to spot these magnificent mammals of the ocean.

Two whales were seen gliding past the point, and as they often do, a tail was raised in friendly greeting, eliciting gasps of delight from various tourists observing nature at its best.

I started chatting to a couple from Germany, who had heard the horn while out on a post-breakfast walk and were not sure whether to find a safe place to hide, but wisely decided to follow a large tour group which had obviously been told the story of the Whale Crier of Hermanus.

They have been visiting South Africa for many years, but this was the first time they had experienced the sound of the horn and the sighting of the whales. (I assume that their previous visits had not been to our part of the Western Cape!) They had just arrived from a trip up North and were truly delighted that they could now boast of having seen the Big Five as well as the whales of Hermanus on the same trip.

As an aside, the Whale Crier has been in operation since 1992, although the idea was mooted in 1991 when a tourist exclaimed that he had just seen “the best-kept secret in the Cape”. Originally, people used to phone sightings in to the local radio station, but within a short time the first Whale Crier was employed. But back to my couple from Germany (Dresden to be exact). Being an estate agent means that the desire to match a buyer to a seller is never far from one’s mind. We started sharing some personal details and soon got onto the topic of houses.

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