Gearing's Point — Attraction in Overstrand Local Municipality

This is part of the "waterfront" area of Hermanus - famous, well patronised, often quite crowded, a real tourist spot, but it deserves it's fame. This is probably the best spot to view the fascinating and mysterious activity of the Southern Right Wales for which the area is famous. On a good day there cannot be many more beautiful places in the world.

The area is served by many restaurants, from "cheap 'n cheerful" to quite expensive (for locals - for tourists it'd be a joke!) There are lawns for those who prefer picnics, there are public displays of local artwork, and there are tourist shops and tourist shops and tourist shops selling goods made locally and then the endless repetitive street stalls all selling the same cheap Chinese junk, little soapstone statues of small African animals and other curiosities such as one can find at roadside stalls all over South Africa.

At the cliff edge there is a "Whale Crier/ Caller" who blows a horn whenever a wale is spotted out in the bay. There was a time when the whales had all but disappeared due to the rapacious activities of the whalers but since those have been curtailed the whale population has grown exponentially and they are almost perpetually visible in the bay.

Quite recently we have seen the appearance of budding young tenors who also occupy spaces on the cliff edge to regale passers-by with their renditions of extracts from popular operas. Unfortunately they do not understand the words which they attempt to sing so it's a pretty ham-handed affair and it is tolerated but hardly appreciated. But everyone has to earn a living, so the effort is met by a few coins in a hat. Amongst all the desperate poverty of the countryside, at least these guys are...

Wonderful setting but service in the dining room not up to scratch. When one pays a rate such as that charged there, getting the orders mixed up is not acceptable, as the restaurant was not busy. Secondly, the wait for our food was pretty long, especially after our table of 6, only ordered 6 starters (4 as main courses) and 2 main courses. Not a complicated order. The melba toast served with the smoked salmon mousse was so thin and a little soggy, so it was impossible to put the salmon mousse onto the melba toast. It simply broke into pieces. These may seem minor issues, however when you pay those rates, these issues should not be...

Gearings Point\ &, Hermanus Sea Front. After wine testing at Spier Farm, left for Hermanus. Road passes thorugh some very pretty farm country, Hermanus is a seaside town southeast of Cape Town,. It's known as a whale-watching destination. Generally people gather at Gearing Point.for whale watching. We did not see any whales . One did come up for a fraction of a secon and all of us missed seeing it. Mr Dave Beer not Only saw it but also took a photo. He could do it because Dave De Beer is a world renowned Whale lover and wild life photograper. Cover photo of his book "Hermanus Whales" is included in photos here.. Lucky...