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Published: December 26th 2011
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For the CFIA viewers in the crowd, I think this is a slaughterhouse
Biltong is South African beef jerky; much less salty and more tender than American Our drive down to Durban was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision as we hadn't really planned our three days between our Kruger tour and our planned hike in the Drakkensberg mountains. We discussed the idea of driving through Swaziland, but we were told that it is very difficult to take a rental car across international borders. Durban was the next logical choice as we could spend two nights there, then drive back North to the Drakkensberg.
What we did not anticipate was the difficulty we would have in finding a hotel. We had no idea that the COP 17 International Conference on Climate Change was taking place at that time (which shows how unobservant we are as there were huge advertisements in the Johannesburg airport on our way to and from Botswana). We called hotel after hotel during the 9-hour drive through rural South Africa and they all told us that they were fully booked. Our anticipated arrival time was about 10:30pm and the idea of driving up and down the waterfront looking for a comfortable and affordable hotel was extremely unappealling. Finally one of the clerks told us to call back in a couple of hours as she
thought she could help us out.
It turned out that a conference-goer was going to be arriving late, so we were able to get a room at the Albany hotel downtown for the weekend. We thought we could relax for the rest of the drive, but we were not prepared for the monsoon-type downpours, the multiple construction stops with 20-minute wait times, the hordes of people partying in the street in Ladysmith as we drove through after dark (summer vacation? some sort of festival? we are still not quite sure what that was all about), the huge potholes, and to top it all off, a half-hour spent driving at 40km/h behind a pelleton of cyclists! I have to credit Chuck for getting ourselves and our rental car through all of these obstacles in one piece. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that our room at the Albany hotel, only several blocks from the waterfront, was on the top floor with panoramic views of the city, extremely comfortable beds, and cable TV!
The next morning we had a lovely brunch in the hotel cafe and set out for a leisurely day walking around the waterfront. It was a Sunday
so Durbanites (??) were out en masse to enjoy the summer weather and it was great people-watching. The two things we had been advised to do while in Durban were to something called a "bunnychow" which is basically a bun filled with curry, and to check out uShaka Marine World.
UShaka Marine World is a huge waterfront complex that is basically like Marineland and SeaWorld plus a waterpark, plus a huge shopping center. It was South African decadence at its best. The aquarium was quite impressive but we've discovered that Scuba diving has spoiled aquariums for us as it's much more impressive to see the sea turtles, stingrays and brightly coloured fish and corals in person than behind glass. We also discovered that the Great White Shark dive that we'd done in Gansbaai spoiled any sort of shark-feeding that goes on at such aquariums. We had a couple of drinks, watched a seal show, watched the vacationing South Africans, and set out to find Chuck a bunnychow (I couldn't sample one because of the bread, but I had curry instead). He says that they were "what he was expecting" and the curry filling was definitely delicious, likely due to
uShaka marine world
Watching the shark feeding was very anticlimactic the Indian influence in Durban.
Our impression of Durban was marred a bit by two factors. In order to get to the touristy beachfront, we had to pass through some very down-and-out neighbourhoods with boarded up storefronts, garbage in heaps, and urine-smelling alleys. The people on the streets appeared very down in their luck. We later spoke to a South African originally from Durban who told us that downtown used to be the heart of the city. That's where everyone would go to eat or to do their shopping before Western-style malls arrived in South Africa. All of the wealthy people have moved to the suburbs and downtown Durban keeps up a nice facade with the beachfront (likely spruced up for the Climate Change conference), but underneath it is poor and without adequate social services. This impression was reinforced by the desk clerk and a security guard at our hotel who, when asked if there was a restaurant nearby that we could walk to for a late dinner, told us that we should take a cab, or go to the high-end Royal hotel only two blocks away. Any other options were unsafe after dark. This is a real shame
because Durban seems like a city with potential as a great tourist stop. We were glad to have seen it if only briefly, and I would still recommend a couple of nights there if you are in the area.
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mom mcphie
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loved the face
you look ready for your arabian nights in Zanzibar with that face paint. it looks quite exotic. looking forward to the next chapter.love mom