Hermanus | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 34°25′S19°15′E / 34.417°S 19.250°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Western Cape |
District | Overberg |
Municipality | Overstrand |
Area | |
• Total | 17.03 km2 (6.58 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 5,610 |
• Density | 330/km2 (850/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• White | 80.66% |
• Black African | 12.25% |
• Colored | 5.65% |
• Indian/Asian | 0.78% |
• Other | 0.66% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Afrikaans | 44.68% |
• English | 31.76% |
• Xhosa | 0.64% |
• Sotho | 0.27% |
• Other | 22.64% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 7200 |
PO box | 7200 |
Area code | 028 |
Hermanus (originally called Hermanuspietersfontein, but shortened in 1902 as the name was too long for the postal service, [1] Afrikaans: ['ɦæːrmɑːnəs] ), is a town on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is known for Southern Right whale watching during the southern winter to spring seasons, and is a popular retirement location.
Hermanus Pieters (ca.1778–1837) was a Dutch teacher who arrived in Cpt in 1815. He was recruited by Dutch-speaking farmers who disliked that English was the only language used in all government schools. He settled in Caledon, but taught Dutch to farmers in a wide area around that town, including the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. He often vacationed at the spring ("fontein") in present-day Hermanus, where he fished and grazed his sheep, the place eventually became known as “Hermanus Pieters se Fonteyn”. He died before the village Hermanuspietersfontein existed. 65 years after his death the postmaster decided to abbreviate the name to Hermanus. [1]
The parents of Roger Bushell, leader of the "Great Escape" (the escape by Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III in World War II), retired in Hermanus after World War II, and are buried there. Bushell's name is one of those commemorated on the war memorial.[ citation needed ]
Hermanus lies along Walker Bay on the south coast of the Western Cape. It is located about 115 km southeast of Cape Town and is connected to the Mother City by the R43 highway (or coastal R44 scenic route) and N2 motorway. The R43 continues to Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa. Hermanus is 40 km from Gansbaai, a spot where people can dive amongst the great white sharks.[ citation needed ] It is also notable that Hermanus still boasts a historic railway station building without a railway line. The founders of the town decided not to lay any tracks as this would have made Hermanus more commercial and felt that Hermanus needed to stay a small fisherman's village. To this day the locals still refer to it as "the village."
The town of Vermont borders Hermanus to its east.
Sandbaai lies on the coast at the entrance to the Hemel-en-Aarde (Heaven and Earth) Valley. It is the most recently developed and fastest-growing residential area of Greater Hermanus. [2] Zwelihle, designated a "black" area by the apartheid era government, is a residential area that consists mainly of shacks. [2] Following the COVID-19 pandemic the town has emerged as a popular destination for very wealthy South Africans to move to. [3]
Hermanus is classified as having a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen). [4] It receives roughly 520 mm of rain per annum, the majority of which falls during the winter months of June to August in the form of frontal precipitation. Average midday temperatures range from 25 °C in February to 16 °C in July. [4] Extremes above 30 °C and under 10 °C are not uncommon. Summer and Winter months are characterised by strong south-easterly and north-westerly winds respectively.[ citation needed ]
The Space Science Directorate of the South African National Space Agency, previously the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO), is a research facility of the National Research Foundation and forms part of the worldwide network which monitors variations of the Earth's magnetic field.[ citation needed ]
Grotto Beach is the largest beach in Hermanus and has also been proclaimed a blue Flag beach. Blue flag beaches meet international environment, safety and management criteria. [5] Other beaches with Blue Flag status include Voëlklip, Onrus, Kammabaai, Langbaai, and Hawston. The rugged coastline also hosts many other smaller beaches, coves and tidal pools.[ citation needed ]
Hermanus is in the Cape Floristic Region and thus has one of the highest plant diversity levels in the world. [6] The principal vegetation type of this region is fynbos, a mixture of evergreen shrub-like plants with small firm leaves. In the local Fernkloof Nature Reserve, 1,474 plant species have thus far been collected and identified. [7]
Over 100 varieties of bird species reside in the Greater Hermanus area. Species such as the Orange-breasted Sunbird, the Cape Sugarbird, Victorin's Warbler, and other rare animals, make Hermanus a destination for bird enthusiasts. [8]
The town is noted for the presence of whales that often swim within sight of the coastline of the town. Although the Southern Right whale is the most prolific species in Hermanus bay, it is not the only species in the area. The whales can be seen from the cliffs all along the coast from as early as June and usually depart in early-December. They were once hunted in the nearby town of Betty's Bay, but are now protected. The Old Harbour Museum contains several exhibitions that explain the local whaling industry, and the De Wetshuis Photo Museum houses an exhibition of photos by T. D. Ravenscroft that depicts the history of Hermanus. The Whale Museum houses a skeleton of a whale and shows an audio-visual presentation of whales and dolphins twice daily.[ citation needed ]
Visitors can watch whales from the cliff-tops, from the air or via boats. Since August 1992, Hermanus has had the world's only whale crier, the first being Pieter Classen 1992-1998, then Wilson Salukazana 1998-2006, [9] and Zolile Baleni since April 2006, [10] who sounds his kelp horn to announce where whales have been sighted. In 2005, Zakes Mda wrote the novel The Whale Caller in which the Whale Crier of Hermanus is the main character, a man who gets enthralled by a southern right whale he names Sharisha. The book was adapted into a 2016 movie by the same name.[ citation needed ]
Hermanus hosts an annual Hermanus Whale Festival at the end of September, [11] to celebrate the calving and mating season. Eco-Tourism is the main theme of the Hermanus whale festival with the Eco-Marine Village. Residents and visitors celebrate the migration of Southern Right Whales and other marine wildlife with ocean-themed activities and exhibitions, emphasizing education and environmentally responsible adventures and activities. Prior to this main whale festival, a Kalfiefees (or Calf Festival) is held, to welcome the first whales (usually in August). Both festivals are characterized by food and craft stalls, environmental presentations, and South African drama productions.[ citation needed ]
Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the country's second-largest city, after Johannesburg, and the largest in the Western Cape. The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.
Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park, formerly Innes National Park, is an IUCN-designated protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located on the southwest tip of Yorke Peninsula about 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of the state capital of Adelaide. It is a popular destination for camping, bushwalking, fishing, surfing and scuba diving.
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity, but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes. A study prepared for International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2009 estimated that 13 million people went whale watching globally in 2008. Whale watching generates $2.1 billion per annum in tourism revenue worldwide, employing around 13,000 workers. The size and rapid growth of the industry has led to complex and continuing debates with the whaling industry about the best use of whales as a natural resource.
The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20° and 60° south. In 2009 the global population was estimated to be approximately 13,600.
Paarl is a town with 285,574 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington. It is situated about 60 kilometres (37 mi) northeast of Cape Town in the Western Cape Province and is known for its scenic environment and viticulture and fruit-growing heritage.
Paternoster is one of the oldest fishing villages on the West Coast of South Africa. It is situated 15 km north-west of Vredenburg and 145 km north of Cape Town, at Cape Columbine between Saldanha Bay and St Helena Bay. The town covers an area of 194.8 hectare and has approximately 1883 inhabitants.
Camps Bay is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, and the small bay on the west coast of the Cape Peninsula after which it is named. In summer it attracts many South African and foreign visitors.
The R43 is a provincial route in the Western Cape province of South Africa which connects Ceres with Gansbaai via Worcester, Botrivier and Hermanus. It is co-signed with the N2 for nine kilometres near Botrivier.
Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa's second-smallest metropolitan municipality by area. It is the sixth-most populous city in South Africa and is the cultural, economic and financial hub of the Eastern Cape.
De Hoop Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based whale-watching in the world, which a town on its shores, Hermanus, has become famous for. Southern right whales visit the bay in the winter and spring months.
Sodwana Bay is a bay in South Africa on the KwaZulu Natal north coast, between St. Lucia and Lake Sibhayi. It is in the Sodwana Bay National Park, and the Maputaland Marine Reserve, and is a popular recreational diving destination. The term is commonly used to refer to both the marine reserve and the terrestrial park, as well as the geographical bay.
Kleinmond is a small coastal town in the Overberg region of the Western Cape province, South Africa. It is situated inside a UNESCO-declared biosphere about 90 km east of Cape Town between Betty's Bay and Hermanus. The town's name, meaning "small mouth" in Afrikaans, refers to its location at the mouth of the Bot River lagoon. Stone axe heads found in the area indicate that people already lived in the vicinity of nearby Hangklip 20,000 years ago. Information about the area has existed in writing since the seventeenth century.
Blaauwberg Nature Reserve was proclaimed a local and provincial nature reserve in 2007. The reserve has views down fynbos slopes, across the city, to seven kilometres of rocky and sandy coastline and the ocean and beyond. The reserve presents itself as one of the few viewpoints in the world from where you can see two proclaimed world heritage sites, namely Table Mountain and Robben Island.
The Old Harbour Museum is a South African museum situated on the coast, in the heart of Hermanus. The town originally developed around this harbour from around the middle of the nineteenth century when plentiful fish and fresh water was found in the area. The Fishermen's Village section of the museum is situated above the old harbour across from Market Square.
The Betty's Bay Marine Protected Area is part of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. It is about 29km south-east of Gordon's Bay and approximately 37km north-west of Hermanus on the south-western coast of the Western Cape. It is in the Atlantic Ocean immediately adjacent to the town of Betty's Bay, in the Overstrand Municipal area.
The De Hoop Marine Protected Area lies between Arniston and the mouth of the Breede River on the south coast of South Africa adjacent to the De Hoop Nature Reserve. The MPA is 51 kilometres long, and extends 5 nautical miles to sea. The whole MPA is a restricted area and is part of the migratory route and calving area for Southern right whales. The area protects habitats for several economically important inshore reef fish species, and ensures the retention of marine biomass in this part of the coast. The limestone coastline is includes archaeological sites and middens that date back centuries. The MPA is close to the Breede River estuary and, provides protection for species like cob that breed in the estuary and then return to the ocean.
The Goukamma Marine Protected Area is an inshore conservation region near Knysna in the Western Cape province in the territorial waters of South Africa
The Hluleka Marine Protected Area is an inshore conservation region in the territorial waters of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
The Walker Bay Whale Sanctuary Marine Protected Area is an inshore conservation region in the territorial waters of South Africa in the Western Cape province between Hermanus and Gansbaai.
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