Durban

Mama with her daughter and granddaughter.

A local rondavela.

Maxwell and Cepo.

The kids from the second homestay.

Our hostel... no tents tonight.

Durban beach.

Durban from the restaurant.

Sadly leaving... Stephanie (Australia), Linda (Toronto) and John (England)

Sunday, December 3^rd.

I woke up at 3:00 because of a cacophony of barking dogs. I got up to pee and found Mama in the kitchen getting organized for breakfast. I went back to bed and got a bit more sleep before we all got up for breakfast. The view out the front door of Mama's house is amazing. Her home is not typical though, as it has indoor plumbing (as well as an government build outhouse drop toilet) and hot water. She has electricity and a large screen TV.

After breakfast we said goodbye to Mama and her family and walked back to the other homestay where we had left the others. Then we all drove back to the Vic Africa Tours office for a debrief and so we could complete an evaluation.

Then we drove for about two hours to the city of Durban. This is where the first part of the tour ends. Three people are leaving and five people are joining. Durban is a large city and has a very high Indian population. It is a holiday city for South Africans. Jay told us that we were to be very careful here and not to go out at night. He said it is the second most dangerous city in South Africa and I assumed that was behind Johannesburg; but no Joburg is third, Cape Town is number one.

We checked into the Happy Hippo hostel where we left our bags until our rooms are ready later in the day. Most of us went for independent walks through the Le Shaka Marine World theme park and all of its tourist shops and restaurants. Then I walked the entire length of the large Durban beach. Unfortunately it was very windy and the sand was blowing around. I walked with the wind to the end and then left the beach and returned via the street to avoid the sand. I met up with Henning for a bit back at the hostel and then went back once more to have lunch. I met Nathan there and we walked around and saw the shark tank in the large ship that houses Marine World. Then we headed back to the hostel where we met up with some of the others. We hung around there for a couple of hours. Jay had a meeting with the five new people who are joining us.

When that was finished we all walked down to the beach again for a final dinner for some, a first dinner for others and another dinner for the rest. We met the five new people: Megh, another Linda, another David, and a couple Manus and Sima. Jay had chosen a restaurant on a pier overlooking the beach as it was their opening night. The venue was nice, the view was beautiful and while we were there there was an incredible lightning storm. Unfortunately, it was really a cocktail bar, there was limited food and that wasn't great. We ate and had a drink before wandering back to the hostel. Thankfully it stopped raining. When we got back we all headed off to bed. We said goodbye to Linda who is leaving really early to get to the airport to fly home to Toronto. There were six guys in my dorm: me, David, Nathan, Henning, Patrick, and Megh.