Kwazulu-Natal

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Heading Northerly up the coast towards Durban we stopped at a number of notable seaside places.


Kuboboyi Lodge, near Port Edward, sits on top of a small hill providing a panoramic view over the regional coastline. The place has a culinary reputation as it is owned by 2 chefs and dinners on the patio were indeed superb. It was a shame that the lodge was so isolated, otherwise we would have stayed longer.


Margate is a more developed seaside town, catering to the South African market. For this reason it is usually skipped by the backpacking fraternity but we found that the touristy atmosphere made a pleasant change. The hostel was small and friendly and we agreed that the double bed was the most comfortable we had experienced in SA.

My birthday coincided with Mothers day here so we splashed out £6 each on a 3-course restaurant special to celebrate. From around that time the weather lost its variability and became consistently pleasant. Warm enough to sit on the beach but not hot enough to get burnt. Ideal conditions but, as its now low season (winter), there are a lot less travellers about. This is good for us as we get free reign of the facilities (ie. access to the toaster, showers and DSTV controller).

After a couple more stops we landed at a place called Angle Rock on Warner Beach.

We knew immediately that this suited us as as we got a large room with fitted wardrobes and a bathroom, kitchen and patio to share with only 2 other rooms, which were mainly empty. The sea was the other side of some dunes so I grabbed one of the boogie boards and headed off to play.

We hit it off with the owners, Rob and Nadine, and joined them for a meal at the local posh restaurant and a trip to one of the big Durban malls.

Rob has a speed boat and was keen to organise a day out so, with a handful of other guests, we set out for the Valley of 1000 Hills, a stunning man-made lake which has been turned into a nature park.

Their speciality was wake boarding, which is like skiing but with a single board. Unfortunately no matter how many times I was pulled behind the boat I couldn't manage to stand up, only pushing increasing volumes of water forward with the board. We rounded off with an inflatable tow which always ended up dumping us in the water at high speeds. It was a great day out but I ended up with bruised ribs and a wrenched back which still hasn't properly recovered 4 weeks later.

Angle Rock was only 30 km south of Durban and only a short walk from a train station so, rather than stay in the city, we took the train in for a couple of day trips. This was a good idea 'cos we found Durban to be rather drab. The shopping was quite good though. Linda bought another pair of shoes (her sixth of the trip so far) and we found a discount cigarette outlet.

The best thing we visited was the KwaMuhle Museum which told the story of the "Durban System" by which the whites subjugated the blacks during early Apartheid. In essence, the authorities banned the blacks from brewing their own alcohol and then set up breweries and beer halls to service the demand, using the profits to pay for the control of the black population. Simple, cynical and no doubt thought to be an ingenious ploy at the time.

While in Durban we also got our visas for Mozambique. We had a bit of trouble finding the consulate, not surprising when it turned out to be on the 26th floor of a tower block.

After 16 days at Angle Rock we made our farewells, skimmed through Durban and headed into the heart of Zululand to the town of Eshowe. Here we stayed in a hotel-cum-backpackers which boasted its own brewery. Unusually for me I remember drinking rater a lot, but then it always seemed to be free. It was a really friendly place. The locals and staff were buying most of the drinks,particularly shooters, and it would have been rude to refuse.

The town felt buzzy and African though the outskirts were like a leafy suburbia. A short walk from the hostel was a forest containing an aerial boardwalk so you could get amongst the treetop canopy and see what was going on (not much).

The Zululand Historical Museum, based in a fort built by the British after they had won the Zulu Wars, was both quaint and interesting. There was a model of Cetshawyo, the Zulu king at the time, who was so fat that he had a throne made with wheels to save him the effort of standing up. (An idea embraced by modern day visitors to Disneyland).

St Lucia us a pretty village nestled on the edge of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site due to the variety of ecosystems within its boundaries.

The village is bounded on 2 sides by a freshwater (though highly saline) lake (actually an estuary, should it open to the sea) and on a 3rd side by the Indian Ocean, a few km away. A short walk brings you to a vantage point where hippopotamuses wallow in the shallows and crocodiles bask at the waters edge.

The Backpackers here was really top notch, providing early morning hikes the park where all sorts of wildlife was observed (zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, more hippos) and night drives in their Jeep using a spotlight to pick out foraging animals and things in the trees. It was great. Every day we would walk along the lakeside to see what the crocs and hippos were up to.


We had a slightly worrying mini-adventure when we set out to walk back from the sea front along the river to the village. Unfortunately we started walking along the wrong river by mistake. As it got increasingly wild and muddy we started to become a bit anxious. We started coming across enormous hippo footprints and the sandy spits favoured by crocodiles. I concluded that something had gone wrong somewhere and we retraced our steps only to find the correct river on the other side of a nearby sand dune.



Of course, it had to be while we were out in the wilds that Linda broke her dentures. We tried all the glues in the local shops to no avail and it was not clear when we would next hit a town with a dentist, certainly not before we left Kwazulunatal later that week.

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