Blogs from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa
Sharks, Surf and Zulu in Durban
Published: May 12th 2012Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban
May 7th 2012
After a great experience in Zimbabwe, the next stop on my trip was through Johannesburg again, to King Shaka International Airport in Durban. Durban is on the east coast of Africa and the main city in Kwa-Zulu Natal, historical home of the infamous Zulu tribes, among others. It's an oceanside town, with a much more tropical climate compared to most of South Africa and immediately as I touched down I felt the humidity. It was a change from the dryness of Zimbabwe's heat. I was picked up by the guesthouse I was staying at and realized I made a bit of a mistake when booking so last minute. Sadly, I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Durban in a suburb called Amanzimtoti, so making it to the heart of town was a bit of a ... read more
April 22nd 2012
Day 0: Final day of packing. Really in countdown mode now (panic mode is probably a better description!). Depart 23 April at 10.25pm from Jhb to Doha and then on to Athens. We Arrive Athens 1pm on 24th and rush to bus station to try and make 2.30 bus to Messolonghi, where our friends Lynne and Jerry will be waiting to collect us and take us back to their hillside home in Panagula on mainland Greece. We are looking forward to a relaxing few days in the mountains before we head to the boatyard to begin the hard slog to get Xinran ready for the summer. Greece here we come! š... read more
Africa- Winter 2012 Entry #10
Published: March 6th 2012Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban
March 4th 2012
Traveling on, we arrived at Isimangaliso Wetland Park. It is here that we had our first view of the Indian Ocean. The park is bordered on one side by Lake St. Lucia, the largest inland body of water in South Africa, and the Indian Ocean on the other side. There are 200 meter high dunes- that have vegetation on them. While walking on the beach, we were amazed to watch a big- 35 ft power catamaran drive at full speed, straight up on to the beach in order to be dragged onto it's trailer. No idea what the driver did with the props- but it all seemed to be in order. They brought in a big tractor/trailer, and proceeded to winch the boat on. Of course, us trailer āpeopleā found this all very intriguing! WE had ... read more
January 8th 2012
Just time for a quick catch up before escaping to New York New York New York. On wednesday we skipped hospital and we took off to Plainsburg National Park. Lots of driving and a fair few animals, but I'm not the biggest lover of safariing. Thursday is what turned out to be our last day working at the hospital. Finished up quickly and got the hell outbid there. The next day weerrrr able to pass off our overnight shift and head to Durban. 7 hours driving was worth seeing the ocean. Had some spicy curry and got very excited over frozen yogurt. So now we are back in joburg and I'm sooooo ready to go. I will be trying to use my goat as handluggage.... read more
December 25th 2011
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 ... read more
Craig Ross and Bryan in South Africa
Published: September 27th 2011Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban » Morningside
September 27th 2011
Episode 5 (27.9.11) Swaziland and on to Durban Hello to all our friends, family and colleagues back home. Hope the weather is warming up by now ?? After Kruger, we drove South, through the kingdom of Swaziland. This is a separate country and required passports, immigration, etc. It was all straightforward, except that Bryan had to fill in a long and tedious form because he was carrying a small laptop. Why ? We never found out.The Swazi immigration building was a glorified shed, with many people milling about semmingly doing nothing. Anyway, Swaziland was interesting - a very poor country with lots of villages with those round beehive type huts, and livestock strolling all over the roads. We stayed in a nice hotel in the village of Siteki, where the waiter was no sure of the ... read more
We are alive and well :)
Published: September 19th 2011Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban
September 19th 2011
Hello everyone from Durban, We realize it has been a long time since you heard from us - that is because we have been in some pretty remote places and have not had internet access since I last posted from Johannesburg. We are sitting in the airport in Durban now - getting ready to fly to Cape Town for the last leg of our trip. I have been writing for the blogs all along even though we have not been able to post them - and Jeff has all the pics almost ready to go - so the blogs should be all posted for your reading pleasure tonight - be warned - you will be getting a lot of information all at once! We are having an AMAZING time and loving every minute of our trip! ... read more
September 7th 2011
Hello again from Durban! So I have finished my 3 weeks working with RidgeCity. I was sad to say goodbye to all the kids at Vullendella (the name of the children's home i was living at) and Eden (the care centre i was working at) I will also miss helping the ladies at the soup kitchen in marianridge! While at Eden, I was able to really take weight off the shoulders of the care centre runer, who looks after the 20 kids single handled, and loved getting to know the kids i stayed with at Vullendellaā¦ just helping them with their homework and life in general was such a blessing. I'll miss them as i formed great bonds with them, especially the older girls, but get to see them at church :) The house I am ... read more
South-Africa and Lesotho
Published: September 29th 2011Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban
August 26th 2011
Thursday 4 August: Ester and me arrived at 7.35 am at O.R.Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. There we got picked up by someone from Mbizi Backpackers Lodge in Boksburg. When we arrived at the hostel we were shocked. The hostel was surrounded by high fences like all the other houses in the neighbourhood. This is because Johannesburg is one of the worldās most dangerous cities. We went inside the hostel and dropped our bags in our room. A black lady showed us around and after that we walked with our driver to an ATM to pay him. We walked back to the hostel and met a German guy, called Christof, who was staying in the hostel too. We had toast with Nutella and tea for breakfast and decided to go to the Apartheid Museum in Soweto ... read more
Kruger Park, Drakensberg Mountains and Lesotho.
Published: August 5th 2011Africa » South Africa » KwaZulu-Natal » Durban
July 30th 2011
Hello all, it's been a while hasn't it? In fact I noticed that I haven't written a travel blog since December 2008, which in itself is a depressing thought! Aside from a 2 week road trip through Europe last summer with my gal pal Natasha (making myself sound camp 2 lines in, impressive)I haven't set foot on foregin soil since I returned. But after a long period of scraping the pennies to try and pay off the last trip, I have sort of reached a point where I could get travelling again, admittedly I still owe a lot of people a lot of money but these are minor points if you ask me, desperate times and all that. So here I sit in South Africa, as usual this blog will be aimed at family and friends ... read more
