Madeline Lodge Bed & Breakfast Durban

I'm spending 2 more nights in Durban with a nice couple I found on couchsurfing.org. Margaret is an environmental consultant working on transportation issues for the city of Durban, and Gavin is a professional clown. They've given me a private guest room and various rides around town, which is great because public ...

... l on plonge dans une eau grouillant d ailerons qui fendent la surface (la je n exagere rien c est du shark feeding, on appate les requins et apres on a une 70aine (2m de long) a se partager entre 3 bateaux)).

J ai fait une plongee dans un aquarium (pour voir des raies) et des touristes a travers les baies vitrees. Ainsi que des grottes avec des requins raggies (3m de long) qui ont une vue tellement mauvaises qu ils peuvent vous foncer dedans... avous de les eviter.

... it is totally appropriate to go to a party you weren't officially invited to. I am pretty sure that we were actually just at the reception and that the ceremony happened the day before, but we got to see the big white dress and everything. Ok, so the events were outside and inside a small tent a short walk away from where I live. The bride and groom walked out of a house (the bride had a charmingly gaudy white dress straight out of ...

South Africa is really... white. Durban is dangerous at night and there
is a huge mall. They have blackouts every day for two hours at two in
the afternoon, and even the malls shut down.

... hit. BAM!! His car was smashed in, and our trunk was demolished. The emergency tow truck showed up in minutes, and got us cleared off. In the meantime, the 2 cars in front of us disappeared down the road. Did we want to scream and curse? You betcha. Once we got the details sorted, and felt that a trip to the hospital was not necessary...whiplash and bruises there were, but thank G-d no blood, we ...

... evening with a British woman, Louise, who's volunteering at the Home while trying to find a nanny job in Durban. It was nice to be able to finally get out and do something with someone new. We ate at a restaurant in the Davenport area. I walked down early so I could get there before dark. All of the shops were closed when I got there at 5:20 p.m., and the grocery store closed at 6:00 p.m. Luckily, there was a coffee bar with a man playing the guitar ...

... the skipper to start the engines. Not what I expected but interesting. The ride out of the reef was wild. The swells were quite big, 2-3 m. But the skipper managed to avoid the worst of them as he weaved a path around the waves and swells to get out to the reef. We hit one big wave and were airborne for a bit but that was it. It was scary and thrilling at the same time. I liked the ride out but I know a few of the others on the boat didn't. One ...

... I'm hoping that a lot of the photos can speak for themselves so you can see what I've been up to. It's difficult to find the time to sit and write about things, especially when the internet is so slow. I'm sure I won't be able to stop talking about it when I get back anyway, so most of you will get to hear all about it at some point!

For photo highlights of St Lucia and Durban:
http://www.facebook.com/albu m.php?aid=1562&l=1e052&id=50789 9698

... we should take the right hand track, it only seemed right to go right as she is always right. We went right. Inching along this unknown track with the speed of an asthmatic ant with a heavy bag of shopping, we had plenty of time to see it. By "it" I mean the biggest lion that ever lived! This beast stood as tall as the car and walked with a swagger like he was as proud as a . . . well ill be, it is true! Still suffering a ...

... Jo'burg domestic terminal is new and shiny, and a definite improvement on the international building next door. So the flight was easy and lasted all of an hour. But when we touched down, that was all about to change. It rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. It rained so much that it was hard to see out of the window enough to drive through the crowded streets, and we got lost. Durban is very different to Pretoria, which I imagine is ...