Robberg Nature Reserve and Whale watching in Plettenberg Bay

Oudtshroom to Plettenberg Bay on the BazBus and I arrived at Albergo Hostel, it is set back from a white sand beach, in lovely grounds with an open fire for BBQ’ing, it also has a cozy inside area with a lovely roaring fire, and an honesty bar, with nice local red wine!

I went our with Ocean Blue on a whale watching trip in the morning. We saw two pods of whales in the shallow water of the bay, they were splashing about and swimming on their sides with their fins out of the water. It is breeding season at the moment and the males encourage the females into shallower waters for mating. Females due to give birth also come into the shallow waters, because when a calf is born, it is born head first and sinks… being in shallow water makes it easier for the female to get the newborn calf to the surface to get its first breath of air. At the end of the boat trip, the way they get the boat ashore was to go full speed ahead, straight onto the beach! It was quite an odd feeling, going fast, straight at the beach, but made for a fun end to the trip!

I took a walk to a viewpoint to get a good look at the beach, and the huge waves crashing ashore, only to see the same whales playing in the shallow waters of the bay still. I sat and watched for a couple of hours and saw them breaching a number of times, and splashing about with their fins. On the same beach a kayaker paddled past and three guys were out surfing, not far from the whales!

Near to Plettenberg Bay is Robberg Nature Reserve where you can walk round the cliffs. There are a number of walks you can do, I took the longer route out to the point, via a path that went along the cliff edge of the northern shore all the way to the point. There were whales out in the bay again, splashing about and swimming on their sides, there were also Cape Fur Seals at the bottom off the cliffs longing on the rocks and playing in the water.

It had been relatively calm, wind wise, but when I got round the point, the full force of the wind was on me. There were huge waves crashing against the rocks and seals playing in the surf. The path back from the point took me right along the waters edge and cliffs, it was spectacular scenery and the weather made it all the more dramatic. There were walkways built onto the side of the rocks at some points, but mostly it was walking paths and sand, in the rockier parts Rock Hyrax were running about, ducking behind rocks as I passed.