HIDDEN GEMS:THERE'S SOMETHING special about whales. Perhaps it's because they're warm-blooded, they're big-brained, they breathe using lungs, they feed their young milk from mammary glands and they have some, though very little, hair - just like us, or many of us anyway - that we feel an unusual affinity.
If you'd like to have perhaps the most privileged view in the world of these magnificent creatures, make a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Hermanus, on the Western Cape of South Africa, about 115km southeast of Cape Town, where they gather every year to spend the southern winter and spring.
The first can arrive as early as May to calf in the shallow water, to raise their young or to mate. The peak whale-spotting period is from August, when the locals hold their welcoming Kalfiefees, or Calf Festival, right up to November and December. The famous Hermanus Annual Whale Festival is at the end of September, at the height of the mating season.
To alert enthusiasts to particularly impressive sightings, Hermanus has the world's only whale crier, who sounds his kelp horn and announces exactly where the whales are gathering.
When I first visited in 1997, the first whale crier, Pieter Classen, was still in full voice. He was succeeded the following year by Wilson Salukazana and in 2006 by the current crier, Zolile Baleni.
When you hear the horn, head straight for the cliff path stretching from one side of Hermanus to the other, with panoramic views over Walker Bay. It hugs the coastline for a full 12km, letting watchers get within 20m of the whales in the little sheltered coves.
If you can't make it right down to the coast in time, there's a bank of telescopes alongside the Old Harbour Museum, from where you can watch the females frolicking with their calves.
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