Curro Hermanus (Hermanus)

Curro Hermanus, where you can drop your four-month-old baby off in the morning and pick up your matric results eighteen years later. One school, womb to workforce, because apparently Hermanus parents do not believe in transitions. The fees start at R43,890 for Grade R, which means you are paying almost forty-four grand for a five-year-old to finger-paint and take naps. By Grade 12 you are sitting at R87,894, so congratulations, your child's matric certificate cost more than most people's cars. A Polo Vivo. A decent one. Seven hundred and fifty-seven learners, fifty-six educators, ratio of 13.5 to one. That actually sounds reasonable until you remember this is Hermanus, where the biggest excitement is a whale breaching in the bay and the whole town shuts down to watch. Your teacher is probably staring out the window too. The whole school is probably staring out the window. "Sir what is the answer to question three?" Sir is watching a Southern Right Whale. Sir is gone. And look, Hermanus is beautiful, we all know this, the wine, the cliffs, the couples in linen. But it is also two hours from Cape Town on a good day, one hour if you drive like a Hermanus local on the R43 which, jy weet hoe is dit, is basically a rally stage through the mountains. So you are paying R87k a year and you are still navigating that road every morning. Overall verdict: Curro Hermanus is what happens when a whale-watching town gets too much money and too much ambition, but honestly the ratio is solid and the view probably slaps.