Local photographer and conservationist Jean Tresfon has once again left us in awe of the Mother City. On Friday, 14 January, he and his co-pilot Ricky De Agrela took to the sky in a gyrocopter to capture Cape Town on one of the hottest days this summer has seen. At 30-degrees with no clouds in sight, the views from the top were simply stunning.
This series truly highlights the abundance of beauty and wildlife that the Western Cape has to offer. Everything from surfers and snorkelers to whales and flamingos rounded up a picture perfect day in Cape Town.
Take a look:
“Table Bay was like a pond, with plenty of container ships on anchor and waiting to enter the port after several days of gale-force south-easterly winds. The beaches at Clifton and Camps Bay were busy but not packed as the weekend had yet to start. From Camps Bay to Hout Bay there was plenty of scattered baitball action with dusky dolphins, cormorants, fur seals and gulls chasing baitfish wherever we looked. The divers were also busy, with snorkelers spotted in the murky water at Oudekraal and a dive boat on station at the wreck of the BOSS400 at Duiker Point, as well as some huge sunfish a little further out to sea,” recalls Tresfon.
The pair circled a few times above the fur seal colony at Duiker Island, looking for Buffel the giant elephant seal without success. The bay just offshore from the beach at Hout Bay was busy with swimmers, kayakers and haviside dolphins all sharing the water. Further along at Noordhoek beach, the surfers and dusky dolphins shared the crystal clear aquamarine blue water and around the corner, at the Kom there were more surfers including photographer Daniel Grebe.
“At Slangkop we turned south and followed the Coast down to Cape Point. There was a wind line about 5km out to sea beyond which the westerly was howling and the sea surface was a seething mass of white horses. As we flew over the crystal clear and icy cold waters towards the Point I kept glancing seawards in the hope that I might spot one of the humpback whale supergroup aggregations but with the wild sea state making spotting challenging I was not altogether hopeful. Just as we arrived at Cape Point I saw a disturbance on the water that looked different and flew out to sea to check it out. Arriving overhead we found an incredible gathering of 107 humpbacks feeding in a tightly packed group.”
Rounding Cape Point Tresfon took a few photos of a spotted gully shark mating aggregation at Buffels Bay before following the coast to the north, with plenty of people out enjoying the awesome weather at some of the more secluded spots such as Venus Pool, the Miller’s Point tidal pool, and both Windmill and Boulders beaches. At Muizenberg the pilots spotted plenty of large short-tailed rays cruising in the clean water, before climbing up a little higher and heading across the southern suburbs and back to base.