Knysna (pronounced N-eyez-na)

 Alas our stay with the beautiful cats had to come to an end. Today we were headed to Knysna, a town in a bay, and known for its oysters. 

It was a short drive so we arrived before noon and had time to drop off our stuff and go out in search of some cold medication as my cold was beginning to disrupt my sleep. 

We had decided to go on a whale watching tour and had gotten the name of a reputable outfit from the lodge. We drove there and booked ourselves on the 4:00 trip. The office/store of the Whale Watching folks was located on Thesen Island which is connected to the mainland by a small bridge. There is a gated community on the island as well as some well heeled shops, and cafes. It was a beautiful sunny day so after booking our tour we went walking around stopping at restaurants to see if we could find a place to eat after the tour.  Although we didn't find a suitable place for dinner we did find a gelato store!

By the time 4:00 rolled around the weather had turned. It was getting chilly and a thick mist was rolling in over the heads (the entrance to the bay). Luckily we had popped back to the lodge for our jackets. We were briefed on how the outing was going to happen and given our life jackets. Off to the boat we went. 

The boat had 8 rows of bench seats that took 4-5 people per bench. It turned out that Dominique and I were the last to board and there were only 2 inside seats left, and the couple, each had one outside seat of the bench, were not budging. So we sat on the inside. The driver then told us that the spotter had to abandon his post due to the fog coming in. They said they would still go out with us, but there was a chance that we would not see anything. Off we went.

It was cold. It was windy. It was wet. Those inside seats were better than the outside seats in the end. Once outside the heads and out to sea the mists lifted and we could see better. I'd like to tell you that we saw some amazing breaching whales frolicking in the waves, but no. We saw a whale back just as it went deep a couple of times, but that was it. As as we actually did see a whale, no refunds. It was disappointing. By the end of an hour we had all stopped looking for whale signs and we were all huddled and cold, hoping the tour would end soon.