A great birthday weekend has been enjoyed by all! Our little Lottie is now 10, and she saw in her move to double figures in style, watching two whales breaching (that's when they rear up out of the water and crash down again) and at least one other whale moving steadily west across Walker Bay regularly surfacing and blowing a fountain of water up into the air as it went. The whales that frequent the southern coast of SA at this time of year are Southern Right whales, migrating here to spend the winter in warmer waters before heading back to Antarctica for the southern hemisphere summer in December. They calve in the Atlantic and if you're lucky you might get to see mothers and young. Apparently they are a little late in arriving this year - at times up to 70 whales are in the bay area off Hermanus. Each mature whale weighs in at around 40 tonnes, and the babies are 5.5 metres long when they are born.

We were just delighted with the sightings we had. I had hoped we'd see something, but was just starting to think how frustrating watching wild animals could be, when we heard the kelp horn of the world's only whale crier (yes, it's true, Hermanus has a full time whale spotter and here's the picture to prove it). He told us where to head to for the best chance of seeing a whale from the shore. So a quick trot along the coastal path for about a mile and we were rewarded with the magnificent sight of a whale breaching 4 times in succesion.

It is possible to go out by boat and get within 100 metres of the whales, but the sea was fairly choppy and the girls were extremely reluctant. So we settled for a land based view, and although we couldn't make out any details, we had a pretty clear view nonetheless.

Our B&B hosts had prepared a special breakfast for Lottie and had even hung up some balloons and a Happy Birthday banner. After present opening (iPod; that noisy African drum; books and bits and pieces), we spent the day walking the cliff paths, rock pooling and watching the rock dassies as well as the whales.

We then headed to the Harbour Rock for dinner and a birthday pudding. Lottie thought the chocolate fudge cake was the best bit. Personally, though my seared tuna was delicious, I thought the bottle of Springfield Estate Life from Stone Sauvignon Blanc Neil and I polished off was definitely the highlight. So called because the vineyeard is on very stony ground, 70% being quartz. We'll get to the winelands at some point, no rush yet though.

Saturday was a lovely day, but overnight the wind got up and we woke to torrential rain this morning. We've had a fortnight of blue skies and sunshine with temperatures in the high teens, and this change was forecast, but still a pity as it meant we didn't get to the nature reserve we had planned to visit today. Instead, we decided to head back to Cape Town as Hermanus is definitely a fair weather place to be. By the time we were climbing to find our way through one of the mountain passes the temperature has dropped to 9C and we were in thick cloud: absolutely no visibility to front, side or even below. It warmed up slightly as we nearer the city, but as it's the same temperature inside the cottage as outside, more or less, we decided it was too cold to go home and went for a bit of retail therapy and a hot bowl of soup in a big shopping mall. I checked the forecast for the week ahead tonight, as we all huddled around our only real source of heat, our log fire. Due to be back up to 24C by Thursday, so winter's grip is receeding. I won't be sorry to see the back of cold evenings, and will really try not to complain in December when we're sweating in the heat.

Once home, we caught up on all the emailed birthday good wishes from our friends and family (thank you everyone!) and Elizabeth and I quickly decorated Lottie's cake. We teased Neil about how as tomorrow is National Women's Day, he has to spend the day being a slave to his all-female family. Ignored the mutterings about 'no change there then..' He has promised me a cup of tea and the girls both a hot chocolate in bed in the morning though. If it isn't any warmer come 8 o'clock tomorrow, we may decide not to get up at all!