Hermanus & Botrivier Lagoon

I have grouped Hermanus and Botrivier Lagoon together because the lagoon is just a 15 minute detour on your way to Hermanus. Let’s start first with Hermanus.

Hermanus

Hermanus is located around 120km south east of Cape Town and takes around 1h 35 minutes to drive from the city. Firstly it is a truly beautiful drive in itself, snow capped mountains in the distance, vineyards, rolling hills and windy roads.

Hermanus is a seaside town famed for its whale watching and shark cage diving. I will be honest here I did not see any whales from the coastline, although I read that during the whale season that this was completely possible as they like to frolic in the shallow waters. Having not enough money to take a whale boat excursion this for me was a disappointing whale-less trip. Though on the route to Boulders Beach to see the penguins I did spot 3 whales far in the distance so I cannot fully complain.

Whales

This is one of the best places in the world to see whales. Whale season in this corner of the world is between June and November. Tours to see these beautiful creatures usually set off 3 times a day (9am, 12pm, 3pm) and you can be expecting to pay around 900 Rand (US$62) for a 2 hour trip.

Gearing’s Point

Gearing’s Point is a popular spot for parking up and walking along the coastline trying to spot these magnificent beasts. I went on a Saturday in Winter during third wave COVID however and it was a little too busy for my liking. I had to shuffle along behind people and it wasn’t a place to enjoy the view of observe social distancing. But it still was an enjoyable walk particularly if you ventured further along the path away from the main car park. Next to the car park there were some nice sculptures and a few fluffy friends, the Rock Hyrax if I am not mistaken.

Botrivier Lagoon

Now I am advertising this Botrivier Lagoon from the sky. So if you have a drone, this is a nice spot to fly. However I came up very short in actually finding an access point to the lagoon. So I can firstly offer you some advise of where you will not be able to reach the lagoon from. I followed Google Maps from Hermanus to Mereenbosch through Fisherhaven. I reached a road that led to a gated community and was unable to pass any further. As the road was not busy I flew my drone from the side of the road (and had one of my worst signal losses on the drone to date but anyway). So then the only alternative appears to be to access from the west side of the lagoon thats nearer to Cape Town but also the roads appear to stop and again I came up short.

So if there is anyone out there that knows how to get there please let me know or comment below. So for now here are some aerial shots of this epic lagoon. Unfortunately due to my drone emergency I wasn’t able to reach the sea, to show clearly where the lagoon had breached the land and flowed into the sea which apparently just happened back in May 2021.