Hermanus, once a sleepy little fishing village on Walker Bay, which has grown into one of the Western Cape's most popular resorts, has been named "2009 town of the year".

The town, often referred to as the "Riviera of the South" is also proudly rated as one of the finest whale-watching spots in the world.

Here, from most hotel windows or along the popular seafront, visitors are easily entertained by the giants of the ocean as they come close inshore to feed their young.

Recently, having not spent much time in the town and surrounds, I decided to make a long weekend exploration of the area after one of my colleagues spent an enjoyable weekend there.

We wanted to experience horse-back riding, shark cage diving, quad-bike riding and strolling around Hermanus to visit the whale museum and the old harbour, before settling down on the wine route.

Since we wanted to experience the area stretching from Grabouw to Kleinmond in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve then the areas in and around Hermanus, we booked into the five-star Arabella, from where we could explore the surroundings.

The hotel recently took the honours for Africa's leading luxury hotel and it was easy to see how the establishment scooped the accolades.

From the moment a visitor's car pulls up at the entrance you receive five-star treatment. It offers sumptuous luxury, highly attentive staff and excellent food, as well as a sushi bar and luxurious rooms to suit even the most discerning visitor.

In addition, there is a top-class golf course, which is a great attraction for both international and local visitors. We had also set up a full weekend of adventure, discovery, wine tasting and, especially wanted to get close to the wild horses of Kleinmond.

We arrived on a wet Thursday afternoon rearing to get going on horseback from the Arabella equestrian centre situated alongside the hotel for a ride along the banks of the Fisherhaven lagoon.

Fortunately the rain abated late into the afternoon and soon Barry Vermeulen introduced us to our steeds.

After a briefing, we hit the trail and headed into the fynbos-covered slopes of the mountains bordering the Kogelberg Biosphere and behind Arabella.

We took the one-hour ride at a walking pace, as one member of our party was not a fully fledged rider.

Our pace was extremely relaxed, allowing plenty of time to take photographs of the birds and scenery along the route.

A good point to note is if a visitor is not a horse rider and lets the school know then the leaders take great care not to get the group into a canter or gallop.

We were even lucky enough to be greeted by the shrill cry of a fish eagle.

Unfortunately on the first outing, we did not have enough time and daylight to ride through to the Rooisand Nature Reserve where we were assured we would spot Kleinmond's wild horses.

Early the next morning I was out and about for the drive to Gansbaai and a date with a company to go shark cage diving.

I have always been rather sceptical about the practice and now was about to see first hand why the industry is flourishing.

Again the weather was rainy and cold and I expected to see no other takers for a dip in the icy cold sea. To my amazement, several other companies had full boats for the ride out to Dyer Island where the great white sharks feed on seals.

After a continental breakfast we had a first-class briefing by a member of Marine Dynamics, who put the entire operation into perspective. Many suspicions that shark cage diving attracts sharks to the shoreline, putting swimmers in danger of being attacked, were allayed.

It was also interesting to meet three marine scientists all conducting shark research, who came along on the trip.

The 20-minute ride out to Dyer Island seem to go in a flash and soon the skipper moored us in a position where he assured the visitors - all from Europe, America and Canada - that we should get a sighting.

With the cage in the water and five of us kitted up in wetsuits and masks, we climbed into the cage and the freezing ocean while one of the crewmen chummed to attract a shark away from the seal colony towards our boat.

After 55 minutes in the icy water and no sighting we climbed out and, while warming up with hot chocolate, had the call to go back in as a shark was close.

This time, all five of us had excellent sightings as three large great whites swam by within a metre of the cage.

A Dutch visitor captured a short video clip of the sharks and was over the moon that he had achieved his dream.

While warming up before heading back to harbour, we watched sharks feeding off seal pups that were not fast enough to make it back to the rocks.

By the time I returned to Hermanus, the weather had again cleared and the afternoon proved to be fine and suitable for a walking tour through the town.

Unfortunately, at the time of the visit the whales had not yet arrived, but a visit to the old harbour and whale museum is really worth it as it traces the history of the town.

Also housed alongside the whale museum is a fine collection of photographs, graphically tracing the history of Hermanus as a small fishing village.

Later we headed into the Hemel-and-Aarde valley, taking the road that winds through the valley among some of the fine wine estates in the area before finally exiting at Caledon.

The estates are nestled in valleys between the mountains and, after passing several award-winning wineries, settled down at La Vierge.

From the wine centre a visitor has a great view across the mountains to the sea.

Close to La Vierge we took the turnoff to Karwyderskraal to discover the graveyard where the rather eccentric Ela Gordon buried her much-loved horses.

The road also crosses De Bos dam where Hermanus obtains its drinking water. In the 1820s there was a leper colony below the dam.

The following day we had set aside to find the wild horses of Kleinmond.

I had heard a lot about the horses because for as long as the older Kleinmond residents can remember, there have been wild horses in the vlei (wetlands) between the present parking area in the Rooisand Reserve and the river mouth at Kleinmond.

As the vlei is also a birding paradise, you can combine horse- and bird-watching. We were lucky, meeting the horses in the reserve close to the parking area.

The horses are not wild in the true sense of the word. Although the present group and their ancestors have, at least during the past 50-odd years, never been haltered or bridled, they have, since their bewilderment in the 1950s when the majority of their ancestors were captured and forcibly removed, become used to human observers.

Their existence has given rise to a number of fanciful theories and romantic tales about their origins.

One of these is that they are the descendants of horses hidden from the British Army during the Anglo Boer War (1899 to 1902).

According to Dr Van der Merwe, however, who has been observing the horses for the past 30-odd years, they appear to be a unique sub-group of the erstwhile Cape Horse of the 18th and 19th centuries, called Boland waperd, which were farm horses used for ploughing, hoeing and drawing wagons and carts.

They are, therefore, of significant historical importance and, according to ecologists, they have an important role as large herbivores (comparable in size to buffalo, eland or zebra), living in the swampy estuary of the Botriver.

Here they fulfil a useful role in the wetland ecology as large animals who feed on a variety of edible plants species and who tread footpaths through the reed beds, thus assisting in keeping the waterways open.

I would have loved to play golf at Arabella, but unfortunately since I am the most dangerous golfer around, opted to go into the Grabouw mountains with an old friend Brian Pickering.

Here, alongside the Grabouw Country Club, he offers trips into the mountains and surrounding reserve areas on quad bikes.

His trips are conducted at a slow pace, with the idea being to enjoy the countryside and not race around track.

As one of the team that puts together the course for the famous Cape Epic Mountain Bike challenge, Brian knows the areas like the back of his hand.

We joined a group from Germany and were soon traversing the many forestry roads high above Grabouw.

Once high in the mountains we stopped then trekked on foot to the head of the Gantouw Pass, the historical wagon track used by traders in the 1800s to move their goods from Somerset West up over the mountains to the coast and surroundings.

Here you can still see the deep ruts the heavily laden wagons scored into the rock.

Standing high above Sir Lowrys Pass it is difficult to believe that these intrepid traders would struggle up such a steep pass with their wagons.

Back home and reflecting on the weekend filled with adventure and discovery, we vowed to get back to the Riviera of the South the next time the whales arrive.

For information about Hermanus, visit www.hermanus.co.za

Visit the Overberg Tourism website at www.overberg.co.za See the Arabella website at www.star woodhotels.com

For details about shark cage diving, see the Marine Dynamics website at www.sharkwatchsa.com For further information about the Kleinmond wild horses, email louise@ecoscape.org.za

For information about horse-back riding, email ecarabella@telkomsa.net Quad bike riding, visit www.adven turewinetours.co.za