Durban 2012

Dubai & Durban - March 2012

Tina moved back to Durban goodness knows how long ago and we've said for a while we'd visit her and Bruce. This year we did. We flew with Emirates and had a stopover in Dubai so, as usual, the photos are split over a couple of pages. Please click on the relevant link below to go to the page you'd like to see.

Dubai

Durban and surrounding area

After another long flight, this time on an A330 (specially advised for Norbert who always needs to know about the planes!) we arrived in Durban.

We'd had the itinerary from Tina the weekend before. Having originally thought we'd be staying with Tina and Bruce for a quiet week Tina clearly had other plans and she'd arranged a brilliant few days for us, showing us (to use her words)

the Berg

the Beach

the Bush

Dinner was at The Cargo Hold in Durban. Good food and some lovely sharks and other marine life to watch while we were eating!

Our first full day with Tina and Bruce was spent going up Sani Pass in the Drakensberg mountains to Lesotho. A wonderful experience. Rudi was our driver for the day - a complete madman but a good driver and full of both fun and useful information. The snake, which we thought was real to start with, is called Twinkles - this was one of Rudi's wind-ups!

road

The road was a bit of a challenge in parts but Rudi was very used to it and his car (a Toyota called Berg Adder) coped very well.

We passed some lovely flowers along the way ...

... and even managed to spot a little bit of wildlife

Finally we got to the top where we also found the highest pub in South Africa and, more importantly, the Lesotho village we'd come to visit.

sparrow

The animals and birds on this line were around the pub area - I guess they know where humans are likely to leave crumbs for them.

The people in the village were really friendly. Their lifestyle couldn't be more different to ours in that they have no electricity or running water and their houses are tiny. How would Jonathon cope without broadband ever again??

The house we were invited to visit was very neat and tidy and the home cooked bread was delicious.

The Lesotho people live by three basic principles - Peace, Rain and Prosperity. Peace means not just not fighting but inner peace as well, Rain (because without water you have nothing) and Prosperity is more happiness in your life rather than financial wealth.

The house belonged to Nanina. She made us very welcome and posed (without realising quite how much) for Jonathon. The little boy on the left is Nanina's son, Luke and the little girl in the middle is Monika, his friend.

Rudi clearly knew everyone, including the people in the Lesotho village that we visited, very well and the children who were there adored him.

Their diet seems to consist mainly of meat.They keep cows and sheep (merino) and sell the wool etc but struggle to grow vegetables in such a harsh environment. It was a lovely day while we were there but, being so high, they get a lot of snow so don't have a long growing season.

The cows are very important as they are still used for a dowry system. The girls typically marry someone from another village and then leave their own village to live in their husband's. However, the husband's family has to pay a dowry for the bride. This is generally measured in cows with 20 cows seemingly being the current currency for a young, pretty girl.

Donkeys are used for a lot of the carrying work and horses are used by the men for rounding up their sheep, cattle etc as needed.

Finally it was time to say goodbye and head back down the pass to South Africa.

We had a bit of a scare half way down between the Lesotho and SA checkpoints (no man's land) where there is no phone signal etc. Rudi's van started making a very strange noise. We took it very slowly and eventually the rattling stopped and something fell off. Turned out it was part of the air conditioning so the boys cut the aircon belt off, the burning also stopped and we were back on track!

The storm that night provided welcome rain. The swallows must have sensed it coming as they were all swooping around (accompanied by a lone crane)

Dinner was at the Himeville Arms then back to Joy and Barry's lovely Rose Cottage to sleep. Dinner was so good we went back there for breakfast before heading back towards the coast (via the Picklepot Cafe to admire all the jams, chutneys etc) and then travelling north to St. Lucia (the bush).

We arrived at Oppi Rotse, St. Lucia for our one night's stay in the bush and immediately went on an evening game drive in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park - the Western Park - but not before we'd spotted a Common Duiker in someone's front garden.

Our driver (Sepi) explained that the Lala Palm is used for all sorts of things - weaving being one of them - and so is an important tree in the area.

Being wetlands there is obviously a lot of water - too wet for lions apparently. However, not too wet for hippos who were having a lovely time in their lakes.

There were a few birds enjoying the water as well.

Moving to the land, the scenery was lovely

"Land" animals we spotted were mainly Burchell's Zebra and antelope (Waterbuck and Kudu).

We also saw a couple of Wildebeest in the distance.

Dinner was at Alfredo's after the game drive.

We spotted a few Vervet Monkeys in the guest house garden (didn't share the jacuzzi or the pool with them though) .....

.... then took ourselves off on a wildlife boat trip with Fannas Tours.

view

As you can see, the water was a brown colour. It was brackish water and formed part of the St. Lucia Estuarine System.

view

The skipper told us that there were about 1,200 crocodiles and 800 hippos in the area. Some of the hippos can be seen strolling around the town at night (they are nocturnal) but we didn't see any of them on the night we were there.

view

We saw quite a few hippos in the water together with a few Nile crocs and lots of lovely birdlife.

hippos

Baby hippos are so cute!

Believe it or not, there's a mongoose hiding in the photo on the left.

Having said goodbye to St Lucia and the Bush, we moved on to the Beach part of the holiday.

First stop Umdloti Beach where Jonathon had his first paddle in the Indian Ocean. This was a bonus because we weren't expecting the Beach bit of the trip until the following day.

We were enjoying our paddle (no sharks!) until Tina spotted a Bluebottle (see left). These little stingers leave a sore bite so out we went and wended our way home to get ready for tea at Blue Waters Hotel in Durban.

Our last day arrived all too soon and we decided to spend it relaxing on Umhlange Beach.

A lovely relaxing morning was followed by a delicious lunch at The Oyster Box Hotel

Finally it was time to say goodbye.

A final note to all those aggressive drivers in Durban and surrounding area (this is a genuine road sign) !