13th March 2008, Durban, South Africa
Few people appreciate what a spectacular harbour Durban has; probably because it has no notable buildings or identifiable landmarks to give it prominence. Nevertheless, its narrow entrance, flanked by impressive beaches to north and south opens to a large basin within which is the commercial harbour and cruise ship terminal. Durban is a large city but we're inclined to say not particularly interesting.
Unfortunately, Durban had a very bad press before we arrived. Passengers from previous cruises and those who otherwise knew the city reported it as particularly crime prone with a high incidence of muggings. We were warned on MSVG to be particularly vigilant and to move around in groups. We had decided to jump ship here and fly to Cape Town so had attempted to book a hotel online in Mauritius only to have a window pop up asking for exactly those security details banks advise one should never supply online. Hence, we aborted the booking without ever knowing what had transpired. Consequently, we spent the early morning trying to check whether we had a booking - we hadn't - but were advised by our bank that reserve of £100 was set against our account. Beware online bookings with strange procedures. Eventually, we did book into the Hilton - we needed a safe hotel with a safe taxi to the airport early next morning. When we asked whether it was walkable from the cruise terminal we were advised in absolutely no circumstances. This all came home when we picked up our tourist map in the terminal which, besides having the map was surrounded by information with telephone numbers of embassies, the police and other emergency services, procedures for reporting a lost or stolen passport, telephone numbers for reporting stolen credit cards and tips for safety. In the event, it would appear the city was not a 'cert for trouble' but clearly had a very high incidence of crime. (When we eventually arrived at our hotel, there was a further map showing which streets were safe to walk along in the dark - there weren't many).
All this was a great pity because once outside the city - and parts of the suburbs were, as D's daughter would say, 'skank' - the surrounding countryside was beautiful and the city itself was significantly more modern and westernised than we were expecting. We had spent the reminder of the morning - after sorting our logistics - in the cruise terminal because it was at least a km to the end of the pier which arrived at a not particularly exciting part of the city , but also because we had a tour in the afternoon to a Zulu village. After an early lunch we took a coach for an hour or so's ride to the valley of 1000 hills nearly half way to Pietermartizburg. The countryside was gently rolling hills but on a more spectacular scale than we get at home; it was, to our surprise, also extraordinarily green. We could see why Natal was attractive to the Brits.
Our tour comprised exclusively a visit to the Phe-Zulu village. This contained traditional buildings near a hill top with great views over the valley and we were exposed to a ritual dance of a young warrior seeking to marry a local girl whom he first has to persuade and then get checked out by the local fortune teller to check if the future will be rosy and the girl is good for motherhood. Prior to this we had the predictable commercial/shopping experience and the show was followed by refreshments. The second part of the trip comprised a visit to the wildlife compounds which consisted of the largest number of Nile crocs we had ever seen. In one enclosure (of which there were about 5), there were as many as 25 grown reptiles and in another a beast called Junior about 7 m long aged a 103 years. He was a vicious b! Finally we saw the snakes, mainly indigenous but with some from elsewhere. Fortunately, these nasties were behind glass which is as well as a number were venomous mambas and constrictors.
On our return, we packed and took a cab to the Hilton. We had a car arranged for 6.30 in the morning and a huge twin room the size of a tennis court. Not cheap, but appropriate in the circumstances. However, the food and drink was both cheap and sumptuous. D had a three course buffet meal for £16 which included oysters, smoked salmon, prawns etc as the starter followed by cooked salmon, barracuda and the best squid ever and a great pudding. Wine was just over £3 per bottle - in the Hilton! We certainly finished what had started as a tentative day in real style.
