Blogs from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa - page 11

Ballito Bay to St. Lucia Sunday, March 16th. Very overcast with low clouds and fog. First thing this morning, is a stop at Wimpy’s for breakfast and to use the internet there. We then got back on the N-2 heading north paralleling the Indian Ocean. We are traveling in the sub-tropics now and the vegetation is like that of Mexico or Central America—palms, bananas, huge sugar cane fields. Labor is imported from other countries (in the past a lot from India) to work the cane fields and conditions are very poor with wages very low. The cane is still cut by hand here and when a field has been cleared, it is then burned. The drive was through planted forests as well as the cane fields with lots of cops out with speed cameras. Even with ... read more

Howick, Midmar Nature Reserve to Ballito Bay (146 km or 90 miles), Thursday, March 13th. Left the campground and went back up highway 103 to the Nelson Mandela capture site to look at the museum there. The museum consisted entirely of large photos blown up with writings and sayings on them, hung along the walls. The photos detailed his youth, his family, his education, and other aspects of his life. After walking through the museum, we looked at the craft shops where the women were doing pictures out of beads and some other craft work. Valerie took pictures of the very interesting large, imposing, metal sculpture that stands in the front entrance by the road. It is a picture of Mandela’s face behind bars, but you only see his face in the work if you stand ... read more

We decided to take a drive into the Eastern Shores Wetland Park. This has been in existence for a while but this was our first time visiting it. With quite a lot of game having been introduced to the area we were keen to see what it was like. We were very pleasantly surprised. The roads are good and it is obvious hat a lot of effort has been put into making the area an enjoyable one for visitors. We visited the hide, the picnic spot and the aerial walkway which is a boardwalk at tree height with good views. But we opted to stop for our picnic at one of the waterholes with good views and plenty of shade, althouhg naturally we had to stay in the car. We weren't Lucky enough to see the ... read more

For the next two days we lived in luxury while eating out at some very nice places including lunch at the very opulent refurbished Oyster Box hotel at Umhlanga. Now that is luxury from the colonial days. They were setting out afternoon tea as we left and that is definitely on the agenda next time, looked delicious. We also took a drive around Durban to see the really nicely done up areas along the beachfront and by the harbour. Unfortunately they sit right next to some really derelict buildings so you could be sitting in a lovely waterfront apartment and overlook an abandoned building site. We also drove around Westville to see our old house but now a lot of the properties have electric fences, electronic gates or razor wire perimeters, a sad reflection on how ... read more

We got across the border and it is quite bit nicer than the crossing before. We had a long and boring drive to St. Lucia. We slept and played games for the time to pass. We eventually got there but were all tired by that time so we settled in. There was only a little time before we went on a search for crocodiles and hippos. We were going down the river when a hippo popped up and we took some pictures then as we started to leave it charged us. No one had their cameras out because we were leaving the hippo and going up the river. But you guys believe me right??? The guide explained why it went under the water then came back up. It is because hippos run on the bottom then ... read more