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Published: December 19th 2008
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On Tuesday, I decided it was time I took advantage of the sea and the pool and enjoyed the sunshine. That morning, when I woke up, I put on my swimsuit and headed straight down to the beach for a morning swim. Oh the water was delightful! Warm enough that it’s comfortable, cool enough it’s refreshing. However, my time in the water wasn’t so much spent swimming as it was spent jumping waves. Jody had always complained that the Caribbean waters were so still and along the coast, I’ve understood why he’s missed the surf. But the waves today were real waves - not much swimming was possible. The only thing like it I’ve experienced before has been wave pools, except there’s no break or predictability to the size of the waves. So I jumped waves and was tossed around plenty. And it definitely got me awake for the day.
But I’d made it a relaxing day. I took a long walk down the beach, the back to the hostel. Then I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade reading and swimming in the hostel’s pool. Now, I really felt like I was on vacation!
Late in the afternoon,
Jody and one of his best friends, Racquel, came to pick me up. They took me farther south along the Bluff, to a look out point. There you could see out over much of The Bluff, watch the planes come and go at the airport and look along the beaches and out to sea. It’s really lovely up there. We just sat and chatted. Then we went to the beach bar/restaurant by my hostel for dinner and drinks. Racquel had to go home, but Jody and I went out that night. More bar-hopping around the Bluff. It was so much fun! I met more of his Bluff friends, we sang karaoke and were out late talking.
Which meant that yesterday (Wednesday), I was so tired. Other than a walk along the beach, I didn’t venture out from the hostel. Just stayed in watching movies on TV and sleeping. But that evening, Jody and I had a date with his family. We went to his Auntie Jenny’s house where I met much of his family: his Gran, Auntie & Uncle and cousins VJ, Leslie (and her partner) and Lauren (and her husband) and their baby, Liam. Liam is so adorable!!
He’s six months old and he’d just laugh and laugh and it melted my heart . . . We spent the evening with the family, eating, chatting, playing Wii and having a few drinks. His family is so wonderful.
Once they needed to turn in (Jody and I keep forgetting that not everybody is on vacation; they have regular work lives!), we went to one of the local bars for drinks. It was fun, laughing and debating with each other until the rest of the bar was in on the debate.
Then today, Jody, Racquel and I went to see some of the sights I haven’t been to yet . . . We went to the Natal Sharks Board. The area has lots of sharks and at many beaches are nets to prevent the sharks from human interaction. The NSB is the organization that maintains the nets, educates about the species and spearheads conservation efforts. At the NSB, it’s like a small museum about sharks. So we looked around there. They also do dissections twice daily. We’d missed the afternoon dissection, but the shark was still out on display. Wow did it smell! I’m not interested enough in
science and biology to get much from seeing that - I mostly just feel grossed out! But I was there, so I saw. There were also some photo-taking spots around the NSB, so we did that. I always enjoy photo taking.
After the Sharks Board, we went to Gateway, the largest shopping mall in the Southern Hemisphere. And large it is! We wandered around the shops some, but Jody also made a point of showing me the mall’s extras - the Imax Theatre, skate park, rock wall, surf pool/wave house, dancing fountains . . . There are lots of bars, restaurants and even a club or two there. We had a lovely dinner on a patio of one of the restaurants. Good seafood. I’m going to miss the constant supply of cheap seafood after I leave!
And that took us into this evening. We were all feeling pretty spent, so it was an early night. I’m curled up here at the hostel, gearing up for my last weekend in Durban.
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