Dumazulu Durban

... in Durban is limited. Despite almost constant rain, I've enjoyed walking around the city a bit and visiting several small museums.

Tomorrow I'm heading up into the northern Drakensberg mountains, where I hope the weather will be good enough to hike and ride horseback over the next couple of days.

Well here I am again in Hillcrest. Spent the week, sorting through clothes to take down in to the valley to distribute amongst the orphans. They were distributed on Wednesday, it has been a variety of weather as well...really hot to quite cold......not sure why I am here early, but I learning to take each day as it comes...

... tourists, so I’m proud of that fact. The places you aren’t supposed to go are the most interesting places, of course, specifically the market areas. That’s also the Muslim part of town, all from the Indian sub-continent I reckon. So I wander around a couple hours and get a ‘bunny chow,’ the local street-food specialty, curry in a hollowed-out bread loaf, not bad, if a bit messy. Then there’s the beach. From certain ...

... people working in SPAR were black. One residue of Apartheid that personally affected me on a daily basis was the difference in the way black South Africans looked at, greeted, and/or spoke to me as compared to the sometimes overly friendly Basotho. There was always evident mistrust/hatred just under the surface of any initial interaction that almost always dissappeared after I smiled, looked them in the eye and greeted them with "Lumela" or "Sawubona ...

... After securing our plans to get to Drakensberg, we decided to spend the day exploring Duban. It was a nasty weather day, but we managed to make our way to the beach anyway. I'm sure it's beautiful during the summer, but a little scary today (see pics). We weren't overly impressed with Durban, although we found a great Mediterranean restaurant for dinner and even had a hookah. Overall, a good day even if it was mostly because of Jackie and the hookah!

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.

... the one class that I'm taking on-line for most of Sat. afternoon at the office. Just as I was finishing around 8 p.m., I started to feel lousy. I finished up, and Liz took me home. I told her that I didn't feel right at all. I wasn't home 20 min. when it hit me like a tone of bricks. I spent most of Sat. night/early Sun. morning in the bathroom. It was far worse than the first gastrointestinal bug several weeks ago ...

... to spend a relaxing afternoon. The gardens were accented with "interesting" art that had a very modern flair. Overall, I think I stayed one day too long in Durban. This city is not a particularly interesting place and really doesn't have much to offer. Aside from the beaches there isn't really anything of interest to make this a destination. Tomorrow I head to Port Elizabeth where I begin my driving adventure along the "Garden Route" back to Cape Town.

... time soon - the women do practically everything while the men go to the city to "work" and are allowed numerous wives!! In Durban didn't do anything too extravagant - went to the beach & did a bit of shopping!! Had the pleasure of seeing our first cockroaches on our travels! Disgusting!! They were crawling the walls of our room in the hostel!

... unfortunately was located in a mall. Although the food was good, the restaurant was up-market and rather expensive. The atmosphere was not conducive to fun and as we had to get up early the next day, I don't think the group had a barrel of fun. We later learned that the guides and driver and Kristal had gone out again after the rest of us were tucked in. At least some people did have a barrel of fun.