South African whale-watching territory runs from Doringbaai, south of Cape Town, all the way east as far as Durban. They can be viewed from cliffs and beaches, with boat operators offering trips out to sea for close encounters. In Cape Town, you can see them from the road along the False Bay coast, and they're distinctly visible on the western seaboard if you get high enough. On the Cape west coast, excellent sightings of southern rights can be enjoyed all the way from Strandfontein to Lambbert's Bay, Elands Bay, St Helena, Saldanha and Ysterfontein, just north of Cape Town.
The town holds not one, but two whale festivals each year. It has its own legend of a girl named Bientanga from the Khoikhoi ethnic group, whose language uses click sounds who communicated with the whales and brought them back to the town. He uses a horn made of kelp to summon whale-hungry tourists to a jagged ocean cliff that serves as a viewing platform. Just metres below are the Southern Right whales that drew Carwardine to Hermanus in the first place and thousands of others subsequently. Although found across the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Rights are among the rarest of Whales. Around 12,000 of the species exist, compared to more than 100,00 Bryde's whales, which are also found along the western Cape coast. They were given their name by whalers, who thought they were the 'right' whales to catch because of the species large amount of valuable oil, used for heating and in mke up, and because they are docile and float after being harpooned. Southern Rights grow to around 15 metres long (55 feet) and can weigh as much as 50 tonnes. That sounds like a lot, and it is a lot. To put into context it's the weight of 10 African elephants. Humpback whales are spotted almost daily during their northward migration from May to July and again on their return journey from November to January, occasionally being spotted as far north as Cape Vidal on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast.