The Big Tree and whales

Yesterday, Marita and I went up past Plettenburg Bay to see the Big Tree. It’s a 1,000 year old yellowwood, quite stately and very, very tall. Marita doesn’t think very many people go see the Big Tree — hell people in Plett don’t even know about it! — but there are plans to build a huge visitor center. Hope they do more advertising. It is part of the Knysna forest national park, I think — it’s part of some national park.
After that, coming back, we went down, down, down a very steep mountain on a very twisty, windy road to Nature’s Valley, a little community of mostly holiday folks by the sea. We found out about a new game reserve to book a tour at and had an ostrich hamburger. Very tasty, but the meat was not tough so much as it was hard. Very dense. Had to use a knife and fork. Back up we came and raced home before dark because Marita does not like to drive at night. She was not willing to risk her little car with me driving, even though it was a complete straight shot — only three turns at the end of the journey that I’m sure I could have done correctly.
Today we saw whales! Or maybe whale. The problem with whale watching from shore is that you can’t see them very well. We saw blowing. We saw flippers. We saw tops of heads. Noekie just called us to tell us they were there, but now the fog is so thick we might as well still be in Mossel Bay at 6:00 in the morning. Marita said, “we’re sorted, already saw them”. But of course we won’t stop looking for better and better sightings.
Reporting from Dana Bay, this is your intrepid reporter, jm