After two nights in Franschhoek, we drove through the mountains toward Hermanus for the final stop of our trip.
The drive was beautiful and, once again, parts of the landscape reminded us of California.
As we drove through Hermanus, our first impression was that it looked like a lovely, lively town where we could comfortably spend some time.
Then we arrived at Birkenhead House.
It was spectacular.
The hotel sat directly above the ocean, with walking trails nearby and views across the water. We checked in, had an amazing lunch and began settling in for six nights—the longest we'd stayed anywhere since Barcelona.
After weeks of touring, cruising and safari, we didn't have much of a plan.
That turned out to be just fine.
Walking Into Town
On our first afternoon, we headed out on the Cliff Path toward Hermanus.
We walked almost all the way into town before realizing it was getting late and turning around.
The next day we took a ride into Hermanus instead.
We visited the Whale Museum, the Photography Museum and the small museum near the harbor. Then we stopped at Perlemoen for appetizers and drinks before deciding to walk back to Birkenhead House.
It was only about three miles and took roughly an hour.
It was also nearly 90 degrees.
By the time we got back, we decided that perhaps getting a ride would have been the smarter choice.
The Beach
Much of what we'll remember about Hermanus happened right outside the hotel.
From breakfast, we could look down at the beach.
And people were always in the water.
The water wasn't warm—about 19.5°C, or 67°F—but that didn't seem to deter anyone.
One morning I counted roughly twenty people in the water before 9:00 a.m., most of them middle-aged or older.
There were older women riding boogie boards.
People swimming.
People simply getting after it.
I initially went in for only a couple of minutes, partly because the water was cold and partly just to make myself do something uncomfortable.
A couple of days later I went back in.
This time the cold didn't bother me much at all. I stayed in for about ten minutes and was perfectly comfortable until I noticed myself being pulled farther out and down the beach and decided I should probably get out before the lifeguards had to come retrieve me.
I was glad I'd gone in.
A Place With More to Do Than We Realized
We hadn't really planned anything for Hermanus.
Whale-watching season was over. Shark-cage diving didn't particularly appeal to us.
So we mostly relaxed, walked and enjoyed the hotel.
But as the days passed, we began noticing how much was going on around us.
One afternoon, walking along the Cliff Path, we looked toward the hills and counted perhaps ten paragliders in the air.
We saw advertisements for surfing lessons.
People were hiking.
People were swimming.
People were riding boogie boards in cold water.
There was clearly much more available than we'd bothered to investigate.
We made a mental note for future trips: even when we intentionally leave space in the itinerary, take a little time to find out what's possible.
The Baboons
On our final full day, we decided to hike the Zig-Zag Trail in the hills behind the hotel.
We expected it would take about an hour to reach the top, followed by an easy walk back.
Near the beginning of the trail, we noticed a baboon about a hundred yards ahead of us.
It moved off the trail and sat on a tall rock.
We kept walking.
Our trail turned before reaching it, so everything seemed fine.
Then we heard baboons screaming.
Two came running down the mountain directly past us.
That was a little unnerving.
We continued walking.
Then more screaming.
And more baboons.
In all, about eight more came racing down the mountain, passing us on both sides and sometimes stopping to look at us before continuing toward the first two baboons, which were still screaming at each other.
Now we had a problem.
All of the angry baboons had run toward the trailhead.
We had absolutely no desire to walk back through them.
Fortunately, we found a bike trail heading in another direction. We followed it toward a residential neighborhood and eventually worked our way back to the hotel.
It wasn't the hike we'd planned.
But it was considerably more memorable.
Six Nights in One Place
We'd been traveling since December 11.
By the time we reached Hermanus, we'd spent a week in Barcelona, 25 nights on a ship, several days in Cape Town, moved through three safari lodges and spent two nights in Franschhoek.
Now we had six nights in one place.
We slowed down.
We ate long breakfasts overlooking the ocean.
We walked.
We read.
We watched people at the beach.
I got sick for a day after making the questionable decision to drink some tap water when I ran out of filtered water.
We didn't feel any urgency to fill every day.
And something interesting happened.
We didn't get bored.
Our Last Day
On February 3, it was finally time to leave.
The hotel gave us a day room after checkout and allowed us to stay on the property until our 5:00 p.m. pickup. They even comped our lunch.
Before lunch, I went down to the beach one last time for a swim.
Then I showered and joined Shirley.
Sitting together over lunch, we talked about the trip.
Neither of us was ready to go home.
Shirley said one of the first things she planned to do when we returned was contact the brokers we'd identified before leaving.
The idea of selling the house was no longer particularly theoretical.
Eventually our driver arrived.
As we drove toward Cape Town airport, we passed townships like the one we'd walked through with Buja several weeks earlier.
After six days inside the beautiful little bubble of Birkenhead House and Hermanus, the contrast brought us abruptly back to the larger South Africa around us.
Then we headed for the airport.
Our eight-week trip was over.
What We'll Remember
We'll remember Birkenhead House perched above the ocean.
We'll remember walking the Cliff Path into Hermanus.
We'll remember breakfast overlooking the beach and seeing people already in the water.
We'll especially remember the older women riding boogie boards in 67-degree water.
We'll remember finally getting into that water ourselves.
We'll remember looking up and seeing paragliders floating above the hills.
We'll remember discovering that an unplanned stay didn't have to mean there was nothing to do.
We'll remember the Zig-Zag hike and suddenly finding ourselves surrounded by screaming baboons racing down the mountain.
And we'll remember our last lunch, looking out at the ocean and realizing that after nearly eight weeks away from home, neither of us was ready to go back.
Would We Return?
Yes.
Hermanus was easy.
We could walk. We could swim. We could hike. There were restaurants and a town nearby, yet we didn't need to go anywhere to enjoy ourselves.
Birkenhead House was a wonderful place to end the trip.
Would we spend another six nights there? Probably.
But next time we'd explore more.
We'd look into the hikes, surfing lessons and other activities we'd only noticed toward the end. And if we returned during whale season, Hermanus would presumably be an entirely different experience.
Mostly, though, Hermanus showed us that we could enjoy staying put.
After almost two months of movement, we didn't need another excursion.
We were quite happy walking the cliffs, looking at the ocean, getting into the water and wondering what we might do next.
Then we flew home.