Sixty Years of Watching the Whales Come Back

Every spring, they come back. Southern right whales return to Walker Bay in Hermanus to calve, just metres from the cliffs. I have been watching them for 60 years, year in and year out.

It is easy to take something like that for granted when it happens on your doorstep. I never have. Each season the first dark back rolling through the bay still stops me on the path. Some neighbours you never get used to.

The story behind them makes the sight more moving. A century ago, whaling had reduced southern right whales to a few hundred across the entire southern hemisphere. They were protected in 1935. South Africa has counted them from the air every year since 1969, so there is a clear record of what happened next.

What happened next was slow. For years the change was hard to see from the shore. A few more whales one season, a few more the next. Today around 6,500 visit this coast, and their numbers are still growing. I have watched that recovery happen one season at a time.

You do not need a boat to see it. In Hermanus the whales come close enough that the cliff path is all you need. Mothers bring their calves into the sheltered water of the bay, and you can stand above them and watch for as long as you like. It costs nothing more than a walk.

I think about these whales when I think about my own work. I have been in property since 2003, and over the years I have built a private wine estate, a wildlife safari lodge, hotels, guest houses and more than 200 homes. None of it happened quickly. The things worth building, whether a population, a business or a family's wealth, rarely do. They happen slowly, and then all at once.

The hard part is the long middle stretch, when the progress is real but nobody can see it yet. The whales of Walker Bay are a good reminder to keep going through that stretch. Protection came in 1935, and it took decades of patience before the cliffs filled with people watching.

Have you ever seen a whale from the shore? If you have, you will know the feeling. If you have not, Hermanus is a fine place to start.

If you would like to plan a private journey to the Cape whale coast, or anywhere in Southern Africa, I would be glad to hear from you. Visitors to Africa plans private journeys for one to six guests and small groups of up to twelve, and I plan every trip personally. You can reach me at john@visitorstoafrica.com, and we can start with a conversation.

John Sparks