Durban July, the special week-end in Durban!

---

Here we are, another amazing week-end in South Africa. It all started with a round of golf and a little wine tasting on Thursday in Durban. The city is just a 90 minutes drive north from home, so can be also done on a one day trip.



I play the Durban Country Club. This year, the course ranks 5th in South Africa, and back in 2015, they made it to the top 100 Golf Courses by Golf Digest. It was not a special golf day, so no discount green fee here. Still, it was only 30usd for the green fee! You won't find that sort of deal outside of South Africa when it come to play golf on amazing golf courses.



Later on that day, we went for a little wine tasting at the local Makro supermarket. They have some great deals on some of the wines we drink everyday. Sadly, the tasting was a little boring...who cares of tasting a bottle that you can buy for 4usd...I was hoping to discover new jewels of the wine industry....but it would not be for that evening! We left pretty early for the dark ride back to home.



Saturday morning, after a nice dive on Friday plus some more golf next to home, we are back to Durban. This time, it's for the biggest horse racing event of the year on the African continent. I name the Durban July. This is all about fashion and horsing...plus some serious drinking too. The crowd seems to have changed over the last few years...more drunk people going around, more security issues, so we kept it to a day event for us. We arrived at 11am and left the races at 5.30pm, and we had an amazing day.



With all that drinking around, I took no chance an we stay in a gorgeous little hotel not far from the tracks. The African Pride Audacia Manor has only 10 rooms and is part of the Protea group, now owned by Marriott. Put it simply, our room was gorgeous and we were very well taken care of. We left the car at the hotel and had a driver bringing us to the Greyville race tracks.



General entry tickets are 220 rands, than the idea is to have access to one of the marquis. As a first visit, I had not much idea of what to book and there is actually not that much information available online. Most people I know would tell me, I've been there, it's fun, but the last time we went there was 10 years ago.



So we took a basic tocket at BoomTown. The place is suppose to be a huge party after sunset...but I had no intention to be surrounded by thousands of drunk people....security can definitively be an issue after dark here. We had a great time. Food offering was basic, but we had nice bubbles and some nice wine.



Gorgeous day, gorgeous weather...gorgeous Tanya too! The Durban July evening is full of parties all around town. But as are a little far from home, we don't have many friends of our age around here. So we kept it to a nice dinner at the hotel, and more bubbles by the spa bath!



Sunday, it a relax drive back to home, and a cocktail at the Southbroom golf club. As for all this week, it's the big local Classics of Southbroom...a golf tournament with people from all over...friends coming down from Congo too! Who said we would not have a social life in South Africa.



Enjoy the pictures. No Durban July for us next year as we are planning a big trip....but we should be back for the 2019 edition, this time going with a group of friends hopefully!

---