24 RTW Day 29 Durban

By travelerdon on June 8, 2024

Durban South Africa, Tues April 2, 2024

Finally back in port after 4 days at sea. The weather has substantially cooled to 21 C or 72 F. Humidity has also dropped substantially and the weather here is perfect! The ship docks at 8AM at the Nelson Mandela Cruise Terminal. We don’t rush off the ship but let all the planned tours leave first. Around 10AM we get off the ship easily and approach the Immigration booths in the terminal. It takes all of 5 minutes to get through immigration and we walk out to the taxis.

It takes only a few minutes to barter with the taxis and get a rate of 450 Rand per hour from an original offer of 600. That comes to about $22 USD per hour. I bet we could have done better but that is an acceptable price for a dedicated taxi for the day.

Our driver, Thadwyn, turns out to be an excellent tour guide and driver! If you’re ever in Durban, South Africa, and need a good and reasonable driver for the day, feel free to give Thadwyn a call at 062-521-0622 when in town!

Thadwyn takes us to the Victoria Market and walks around with us. We wish there was such a Market at home! But I believe the Los Angeles Health Department would have a field day in just such a market! Even whole Sheep’s Heads for sale! Would love to harvest the cheek meat from them! Sorry if any of my followers are creeped out by this! There are some very creative names on some of the spices!

Fish delicacies galore also! We find fabrics and products as far as the eye can see! We even find a fun magnet for our wall map in our stateroom! One of the fun things we do on a long cruise is buy a location magnet for each port and put it on our wall, making a map of our journey! This is easy to do because ships stateroom walls are metal! The fish market sections are interesting!

We wander through spice markets and our cameras are in heaven! We even spend about $12 USD on several fresh spices to use when cooking back at home!

Thadwyn next takes us to the Botanical Gardens and finds a friend of his, Vishnu, a golf cart tour operator in the Gardens and we pay Vishnu $10 USD each for a private tour, replete with extensive knowledge of all the plants and trees in the Gardens! Well worth the 45 minute tour! We even see a tree that has been alive since the dinosaurs and is called the loneliest tree! It has been determined that the tree is male. There is no surviving female tree of its species and it cannot reproduce! We are told that somewhere in the UK, they are working on trying to clone a tree and turn it female. As I don’t understand the science, I will accept it is a lonely tree!

We next drive off for views of the Durban Soccer Stadium, a feat of engineering in itself! More city views and we arrive at Umhlanga Pier, with what appears to be Whalebones built in! A very photogenic pier and our cameras thank us! Even a miscellaneous vendor selling everything from hats and scarves to kites that realistically looks like a large bird!

Next it is off to lunch where Thadwyn finds us our requested meal of “Bunny Chow”, a famous dish here that is a hollowed out bread bowl filled with Mutton Curry! It turned out to be fabulous! The restaurant staff asked where we were from, and when we told them Los Angeles, they informed us we were the first ‘Foreigners’ to dine in their new restaurant since they had just changed location!

Then, after a few more views of the local stadium, we arrive at a bird sanctuary where our cameras are blessed with views of many exotic and common birds. Some are very fun!

After the birds, we drive along the coast and come across some very well done sand sculptures at the beach! The Zulu Dancers that frequent the location aren’t there on a Tuesday so our tour comes to an end and we head back to the ship. Just before we get there, Thadwyn stops at a Match Factory where a Lion Sculpture in front “Roars” every hour on the hour! Fun!

Then, back on the ship, we unload our gear and new possessions and head for a bar and refreshing cold drinks! We visit with old and new friends and swap stories of the day. The one thing we didn’t see, Zulu Dancers, was seen by some, it seems.

We go to the nightly trivia in one of the pubs, The Purple Turtle, and we come close to winning but a clerical error occurs and we are too late to claim the prize! Oh well, the prizes are basically ‘kudus, you won!’ so all is good!

Then I go out on deck and take a few night shots as the ship pushes off the pier and we set sail (so to speak) for Capetown, South Africa. Two Sea Days are ahead of us and we are immediately warned of 5 Meter Seas tonight and a smile forms on my face! I love some motion in the ocean! I will be rocked to sleep tonight and will likely be totally refreshed in the morning! Call me weird!