Holiday in Durban
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Sunday April 23rd
2000
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Thala
Game Park
One of the
highlights of our trip to Durban was a day spent at the
Thala Game Park. There were lots of antelope - Impala,
Springbok, Kudu, Eland. There were also rhinos and
hippos. Our favorite was the giraffe. This was one of
about a dozen that we saw travelling together.
The famale
giraffes have little tufts of hair on their 'horns'. The
tufts on the males are worn down from 'necking'. That's
what boy giraffes do to each other. That bang their necks
against each other to figure out whose more macho. I like
our version of 'necking' better.
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Hello Everyone
Happy Easter and Passover to all. It's Easter Sunday and we just
came back from holiday. We spent a week in Durban, the Miami of
South Africa. Durban is a city on the coast of the Indian Ocean
about the same latitude as Miami (only it's south latitude). It
is a major city with major city problems but we had a great trip.
We stayed with our friends Jan and Ruthann Hall. They are UCC
missionaries assigned to Durban. They have an apartment right on
the beach.
We lost Lois’s passport somewhere along the way to Durban so
we stopped at the US consulate on the way in to our friend’s
apartment. I had visions of having to leave Lois at the Lesotho
border under a makeshift leanto for months while we waited for a
new passport. I am happy to report that the consulate was very
helpful and Lois had a replacement passport in 2 days.
That’s RIGHT! TWO DAYS – are you listening Boston
Passport Office? Unfortunately she will need to get a new border
pass in Lesotho if we want to be able to drive across the border
to shop without having to wait on the long lines. Guess who will
have to go thru the 4 hour two day wait in the hot sun to get her
the pass. She is going to owe me BIG time.
The Durban Beach is quite nice. It is quite long with a
pedestrian walkway called the Marine Parade that goes for a
couple of kilometers along the beach. The walkway is very nice
with street musicians and lots of street vendors all selling the
same stuff a la Juarez, Mexico except with an African flavor. The
parade is dotted with public pools that people can use if the sea
is too rough. These pools are very esthetically designed with the
walkways looping over and around them.
Despite Durban's big city reputation (crime etc.) the beach area
is kept very clean with a significant police presence. You can
even walk the parade at night and eat at the restaurants along
the beach. They realize that this place means tourist dollars so
they endeavor to make sure the beaches are nice and the area is
safe. Although the area was safe enough it was definitely a city
– there were a half a dozen or so girls working the street
around the Hall’s apartment and at night you could see men
exchanging something that was most likely drugs.
Ben Franklin said 'Fish and guests stink after 3 days' and we
wanted to get an invitation back here sometime so we spent one
day and night in Umlhanga Rocks just to give our friends a break
from us and the kids. Umlhange Rocks is a resort area about 15 km
north of Durban. It is quite lovely but very very white while
Durban was very multiracial. We stayed at one of these resort
type places which was right on the beach. They sponsor activities
for the kids and adults each day. The day we were there the kids
went on a tidal pool walk among the rocks and in the evening
there were Zulu dancers who were quite exciting to watch.
The Indian Ocean was quite warm though we are well into fall and
approaching winter. It also has a lot of sharks. The beaches are
all protected with shark nets. I didn’t see them at the
Durban beach but I saw them hauling in a shark net in the early
morning hours at Uhmlanga Rocks. I also saw a dozen porpoises
traveling just off the beach and leaping out of the water. You
can go on ‘porpoise watch’ boat trips but they
weren’t running the day we were there.
The native people in Durban are not Basuto but Zulu. Jan and
Ruthann are learning to speak isaZulu like we are trying to learn
Sesotho. There are something like 14 official languages in South
Africa. Strangely, we heard very little Afrikaans. Many Indians
came to the Durban area and many shops are run by Indians. Most
of the police are Zulu or Indian and the food is definitely
ethnic.
The Halls took us to a game park one day - Jurassic Park, I think
. We had a great time for our first wildlife experience. No lions
but lots of antelope, giraffe and zebras (That’s not zee-bra
as we would say in the US – ‘zebra’ rhymes with
Debra). There were also a couple of rhinos and hippos. We saw the
rhinos but the hippos stayed in the water. Hippos are in the pig
family. It seems hippos have sensitive skin and they get
sunburned if they stay out in the sun. Poor babies. I would have
given them my bottle of Coppertone 45 but I didn't have enough to
cover something that big. Besides, I wanted to keep my arm. More
people are killed by hippos than any other wild animal in Africa.
(“They call me MISTER PIG!!!” – actually that was
not said by a hippo but by Pumba the warthog in the Lion King. We
even saw a warthog – I mean we are talking uuuuugleee). We
also went to a bird sanctuary that was great fun and they had a
wonderful show where the selected birds flew around on command.
The birds, of course, were not ugly.
On the way back to Lesotho we stopped in Ladysmith for lunch at
Mario’s restaurant in the Grand Hotel. Ladysmith is the home
of Ladysmith Black Mombazo – the Zulu acapella singing group
that played with Paul Simon on his Graceland album. Mario’s
had some interesting lunch selections including a ‘Wyoming
Burger’ and a ‘South Carolina Chicken Burger’. It
tasted just like fish!. Yeesh! (The Holiday Inn near the
Halls’ apartment featured ‘Longhorns Restaurant’
– complete with American Flag).
We stayed overnight at a Bed and Breakfast in Bethlehem which is
250 km from Maseru on the route from Durban. It was a beautiful
place with lovely gardens and a spectacular view of a large river
valley. South Africa has built (and is still building) a series
of dams and tunnels high in the mountains of Lesotho. The dams
collect the water and the tunnels bring it to the South African
farm lands in Free State and the Transvaal. The large river
overlooked by the B&B is a result of the outflow of the
tunnels from Lesotho. Lesotho is so very poor the water they sell
to South Africa represents a major source of hard cash for them.
You can forgo breakfast at the B&B if you want to save some
money. They will also provide dinner (for a price) if you ask. We
were tired and didn’t want to go out to look for a place to
eat and we wanted to get an early start so we elected to have
them make dinner and passed on the breakfast. Dinner was a very
nice home cooked meal made just for us with enough left over for
breakfast the next day, The room had a double bed, 2 single beds
and a sleep sofa. It also had a mini-kitchen with a small fridge,
stove and sink and a full complement of dishes, glasses, etc. The
landlord brought us milk for tea when we got there and then
brought dinner to the room. The entire stay (including dinner)
was R437 (437 Rand). Since the exchange rate is about R6.7 to $1
this works out to be about $65. It was great.
We got home yesterday and this morning we went to the Anglican
Cathedral for a lovely Easter service. I have to find a way to
record the Sesotho singing in church – it is very beautiful
with rich unrehearsed harmonies. After church we had a nice visit
with friends and then went home to hunt for the plastic Easter
eggs that the Easter Bunny left for the children. Some of the
eggs had candy and some had money - Rand, of course. The bunny
got off easy since the exchange rate is so good.
Well, gotta go. Please keep us in your prayers. This missionary
life is tough but someone’s gotta do it – (heh heh)
So long from sunny Miami – ah, er Durban and the Mountain
Kingdom
Love to all
pz
updated
4/23/2000
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