February 17th to 19th - Durban, South Africa

Wednesday, February 17th

Breakfast was between 7 and 9 this morning and I made it down about 8:15.  I had a good sleep but not long enough.  For some reason the Internet started working just as I was about to shut off the lights.  Then I was awake many times during the night trying to keep my computer alive and uploading pictures.  I should have just slept because I think I only got about 1 loaded over an eight hour period.  What a bother.

Breakfast was good and Randy then took off for a long walk along the beach front to see what he could discover.  I stayed behind as it was again misting.  Besides I was more interested in finding a massage place and having my hair cut.  The ladies at the front desk helped me with that so I knew where I was supposed to be going.  However, I got side-tracked.

I did some internet since it was working for a change and tried to upload some pictures.  That was an incredibly slow process and took hours for just 12 pictures.  I then decided I just had to be brave and delete all the Cape Town pictures and hope I remembered to get them later off my memory card.  Doing that freed up a bit more memory on the iPad and the internet speed did improve - a bit - for a while.  Eventually, as I was starting to fall asleep, I decided I might as well go do the afternoon city bus tour since the weather was clearing.  

The Rickshaw bus is Durban's equivalent of a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus except you don't have much of an opportunity to hop on or off.  The trip is 2.5 to 3 hours depending on traffic and there are two stops: one for 30 minutes and one for 10 minutes.  Randy refused to get on a bus so soon after our bus trip but I decided this would be a good way to see the city.  There were less than a dozen people on the afternoon bus so there was lots of room.  The commentary comes from a man with a microphone as opposed to on tape, so everyone around us on the street could hear what was being said.  Luckily the commentary was in English so I could hear and understand it.

We started off driving along the waterfront.  The overall area is called the Golden Mile because of all the golden sand but it's really about 6 km in length so I'm not sure where the "mile" comes from.  There are lots of hotels, restaurants and shops on the side of the road across from the beach.  On the beach side of the road there is a lovely wide promenade with tiled design, palm trees and a lot of golden sand.  In some places the beach is really wide in in other places it is more narrow.  There are several places with pools and other entertainment along the water.  There are piers every so often along the length of the beach and between the piers there are different beaches.  Some are swimming beaches while others are fishing or surfing beaches.  That tells you the waves are pretty big so I'm not likely to spend much time in the water or get in too deep.  It appears that the waves could swamp you even if the water was only up to your knees.  Today it wouldn't matter which one you went to because they were all pretty empty.  Even the life guards were hard to find, although they were indeed present I'm sure.

At the end of the stretch of beach you have Ushaka, which appears to be an aquarium (the fifth largest in the world), a marine world, water parks, rides and other entertainment.  And behind that, on the other side of the point you have Durban harbour, which is the 9th largest in port in the world.  Who knew?  It certainly stretched a long distance and there were a lot of large ships and cranes and containers and cars so it's certainly a busy place.  

From there we drove up and down the streets of Durban and I can't begin to remember what all we saw.  There were lots of old buildings, maybe around 1900, down by the harbour and they had real character with their arched windows/doors and upper-level verandas.   There were also a lot of new shiny high rises towering above them and there were also statues and monuments in various locations.  Some of the streets were narrow and some of them were wide boulevards.  There were lots of shopping areas and the one by the railway station seemed to stretch forever with street vendors as well as those in the covered market area.  Some of the old brick buildings were quite spectacular with different coloured bricks creating the design.  The area around City Hall was very nice with its old brick buildings.  I shall have to visit it at some point as it includes a gallery, a museum and an auditorium, as well as other things.

We had our first stop at a small mall and with just 30 minutes we had time to find the washrooms and then grab a quick bite to eat before getting back on the bus.   After that it started to rain and most people deserted the open upper-level for more covered seats.  I stayed behind with my rain coat on and did very well.  It was warm enough and windy enough up there that the rain dried almost instantly.  However, when we hit a few tree branches along the way I did get a bit wetter.  Our next stop was just at a lookout to take some quick pictures of the city below.  Given the weather situation it was hard to even see the city below but I wasted some pictures anyway.  

We went through the ritzy neighbourhoods and the poorer ones, the high ones and the low ones, past some lovely parks and gardens and then back to the ocean promenade again.  It was a very nice tour, despite the weather, and I'm glad I went as Durban is very large (almost 4 million) so I likely won't make it to all of these places.  The Zulus make up most of the population but then the next largest is Indian.  Being on the Indian Ocean brought a lot of trade and people from India and many of them stayed.  You can certainly see their influence on the city and on the food.  

I got back to the hotel, relaxed for a while and then we went out to dinner.  On the bus tour we had passed the Durban Spa and it was next to a Spur restaurant and not too far away so that's where we went for dinner so I could check out the spa at the same time.  Of course the spa was closed when we got there but dinner was good anyway and now I know where the spa is.

Thursday, February 18th 

This morning was another slow morning with a leisurely breakfast about 8:00.  After that I went off to the Durban Spa to see if they could help me out today.  As it turned out they weren't too busy so I got a lower leg waxing, a full-body massage and a hair cut, wash and style.  Together, including tips, it cost about 750 rand or about $75.  The massage alone would cost more than $100 in Kelowna so it was a good deal.  The girl didn't do nearly as good a job on the hair but it's once again really short so should be fine for next month of travelling.

After that I went to the China Mall, where I was told I could find a new backpack (zipper broke on mine and some shoelaces) but the name says it all.  There were lots of shops but the goods were cheap Chinese products and nothing that would last very long.  The mall was half empty and looked like it was in pretty bad shape.  I thought I might get some lunch at the food court but it was all boarded up.  This was a five-storey mall so it looked like it should have been good but it definitely left a lot to be desired.  The area around it was not too nice either with people sleeping on the street and lots of others just standing around doing nothing.  I didn't stay long but quickly walked back to the hotel and spend another slow afternoon trying to upload pictures.  

It started raining in the late afternoon, a real thunderstorm, so we went to the nearest restaurant for dinner - Indian food that was really good.  When we left we had to hurry back as it was really raining but we didn't get too wet as we were so close.  

Friday, February 19th

This morning I woke up a bit earlier because the sun was actually shining and it was a beautiful day.  However, once I got up I had a few minutes of panic.  Suddenly I thought I should be packed and ready to go because we'd already had two nights here.  It actually took me a few minutes to wake up or calm down enough to realize I wasn't on the bus tour and I really didn't have to pack up and leave right away.  What a strange sensation!

I went down to breakfast about 7:30 and then, after a lovely breakfast and break staring at the ocean, I decided to go to the beach.  I wanted to go in swimming so I walked down to the swimming beach past the fishing beach and the surfing beach.   There were actually two designated swimming areas and they were pretty small but there were not a lot of people out.  The lifeguards were on duty and several times they had to remind people to stay between the signs and in shallow water.  I of course didn't have to be reminded as I only got about knee deep and the waves at that level were enough for me.  I got totally soaked and cooled off so that was good.  The water temperature is about 20 degrees as Durban is on the Indian Ocean.  Cape Town waters are much colder as they are on the Atlantic Ocean.  The sand is a very fine grain and beautiful here, although it does get very hot.  I only last for a while with my sunscreen and the ocean to cool me off before I had to move to the shade farther from the water. Two ladies from Jo'burg joined me in the shade and said the water is generally much calmer.  Maybe we'll get to experience some of that before we leave.

I went back to the room, showered, opened the windows and door of my room and relaxed in the cool breeze.  Then about 2:30 I wandered down to a nearby cafe that has internet so I could actually get some work done a bit faster.  I also had some lunch there.  I took the slightly longer walk back via the beach and a bank machine but then enjoyed a few more hours in my cool room.  Dinner was back down on the beach and that was the end of another fine day in Durban.  Not much to report so combining days in one blog is a good idea.