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Published: January 11th 2009
Leaving Lesotho we entered South Africa into the Free State, the day paned out into a 12 hour drive - on route we booked ourselves into a backpackers called African Sunsets, its in the Valley of a 1000 hills just outside Durban. Basically, the set up is an old coffee farm where the beans are harvested but then piled up and never processed, according to Derek an old Zimbabwean who also lives on the farm. The set up was pretty strange and it looked as if no one had stayed therefore a while, still we were able to drive our Landy into the garden and set up camp, making use of the backpacker lodge with TV, free pool (where I was once again whipped!) and hot showers.
Sunday was spent on Durban beachfront having a trip down memory lane, for me anyway, as we used to come here when I was a kid for summer holidays. The beaches are still the same but the apartheid restrictions are obviously all gone now which I suppose is the major change since I was last here. Some photos are included for those like my mum who remember it. We had organised to camp
at a backpackers in Durban centre, another back garden, but on arrival the camping area was about 5 ft sq. next the the pool. No room for a roof tent so we quickly called up a B&B in Umlanga and had a bed for the night, along with a friendly ex-Zimbabwean Mike who had cold beers well stocked in his bar. As we were in Umhlanga we spent a few hours at the Gateway mall, weird to see so many people after 12 weeks in the bush. We stocked up on food and Xmas gifts. Before having lunch on the balcony serenaded by pan pipes of jingle bells (yes those Peruvians do get everywhere).
Xmas at Sugarloaf campsite in St Lucia (about 4 hours north up the coast), the neighbours were all Afrikaans on their summer holidays and kept to themselves. Usual problems with monkeys around the camp, spent an amusing few minutes watching them break into our neighbours tent and make off with vegetables and crockery after knocking everything onto the floor. I did try to chase them off but they pretty much ignored me (ok I just went closer to have laugh at what they were up
to). St Lucia is a series of estuarine lakes so there was much fishing, had some luck with the fly and a bit more with my Xmas gift from Sandra, a new spinning rod. The only problem about fishing the estuary is the hippos and crocs, I hooked a fish one morning only to have a massive croc surface about 10m away and proceed to haul out where I was standing. Obviously he has right of way being much bigger and meaner than me!
Xmas dinner was a bit special, we got a lamb joint and did on the braai (bbq) along with garlic potatoes, sugared carrots and fresh rosterkooks (braai rolls to the non-Afrikaans). Everything was wrapped in tinfoil and shoved in the coals for a few hours while we drank cold beers and enjoyed the sunshine. Boxing day we did the requisite hippo cruise up the estuary and went to the beach, along with the rest of the world it seemed. The car park seemed to be the place to beer with lots of fires cooking meat, cold beers and pumping kwaito music. It was lively enough just to sit and watch the partying. Had a chat
to some of the guys who said boxing day and new years day are the major beach days and that their whole village had come down for the day, especially as there was no work on Saturday! Most people are Liverpool fans, quite rightly as they still top the league, so wearing my shirt definitely makes for lots of conversations.
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teresa
non-member comment
glad it was a happy one...
I also had Xmas braaing...albeit at a pool... A white Christmas seems very unappealing. Looking forward to hearing about the Mozambique leg! Love to you both Teresa