Whale watching, Hermanus, Western Cape province

Hermanus (originally Hermanuspietersfontein), 115 kilometers southeast of Cape Town on the southern coast of the Western Cape province, is popular for whale watching during the southern winter and spring, and a retirement town, connected by the R43 highway, which continues to Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa.

The Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO), a research facility of the National Research Foundation, is part of the worldwide network which monitors variations of the Earth's magnetic field.

Hermanus hosts an annual whale festival at the end of September, when the Southern Right whales come into the local bay during the mating season.

PHOTO SOURCE: Lanz von Horsten, courtesy of, and copyright, South Africa Tourism, a department of the government of South Africa, used with permission.

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