ST LUCIA and DURBAN

SAINT LUCIA

Sheri at Cape Vidal - iSimangaliso Wetland Park

We arrived from Swaziland to the town of Saint Lucia on the South African coast of the Indian Ocean. We entered a different world compared to dry Kruger Park and Swaziland; a land of rain and wetlands and green grass and trees. We stayed a Manzini Lodge on an estuary of a wetland preserve. We had our own fitted out kitchen, but you had to be careful not to have the lights on and the refrigerator running when the stove top was on or else – puff – darkness. We rushed to the beach and walked in the sand and warm water at twilight. There was a huge lightning show and later in the night it rained hard then a lot harder.

Beach at St Lucia

Beach at St Lucia

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Backyard at our accommodation.

Next day we booked in a kayak trip to iSimangaliso Wetland Park. We met up at a boat house with our guide, Justin, who is a trim young Zulu man from Kosi Bay who had a pretty easy time since we knew how to paddle. We were the only two guests. We paddled out to the estuary and drifted right up to some crocs and hippos. We saw some monitor lizards and later we saw a kingfisher who had a small fish and was whacking it hard against a branch to put it out. It was a pleasant time out and Justin was a good guide. In the afternoon we drove north in to the Wetland Park and drove up to Cape Vidal. It has a really a fine nature beach with warm water and soft granite sand and miles of empty stretches. We had a swim and a walk. On the way back we were wildlife spotting including zebra, buffalo, hippo, kudo, and a lone rhino. iSimangaliso Wetland Park is a beautiful and impressive place.

Curtis and Justin

Monitor Lizard

Baby Kudu

DURBAN

From St Lucia we scooted down to Duban with a quick stop at the beach at Shaka’s Rock. Entering metro Durban we were stuck in traffic and loaded down with all the stuff associated with 4 million people. After some precision urban driving by Curtis we arrived at our accommodation, Hippo Hide Backpackers. Even though we were in an urban neighborhood our room was a wooden hut which looked dark but actually was pretty good. For dinner we drove to Florida Street and ate at the House of Curry – an inexpensive but fairly trendy spot. Seating was outdoors but they had infrared heaters for warmth. After, we strolled around looking into bars and restaurants – Zulu Taco looked to be the most happening but really for a big city it was pretty dead. And outside of this area it’s not recommended to walk at night. Next day we drove to the central district of Durban. Sheri wanted go to the Indian area, which we did. There were quite a few Indian run shops but most of the people were black. We stopped by a CD store and Sheri had the clerk dancing in the isle to South African music. Pretty much everyone in the store (employee or shopper) knew every word of every song. We bailed out of there and went to a herb market. The herb market is set on a freeway on-ramp that apparently was never connected to the freeway. It’s elevated and curved and basically an open air collection of stalls. There were old desiccated animal parts hanging around and bin upon bin of leaves and bark and bottles of stuff. People were busy chopping up herbs and men where pounding the hell out of bark and who knows what in heavy steel mortars. There were piles of spread out … elephant dung? It was explained to us that most of these items are used in traditional medicine and cures for whatever problems a person might have. We were definitely the only whities in this zone. At the end of the herb market we took a pedestrian bridge off the end of the on-ramp that fed into a market above a train station. There was a video section where about 20 stalls had videos playing back all at maximum volume so that it was a total chaos of sound.

Durban Herb Market

 

The herb market is located on a freeway on ramp.

Traditional healers and urban skylight come together in Durban

We cruised down to Queen Street and had some Indian takeaway – special deal - 2 for 1 shwarmas. As we made our way back to the car a drunk man ran into Sheri then slithered off. Well maybe he wasn’t so drunk since he pickpocketed her empty camera case out of her hoodie pocket. After that we maneuvered our little Volkswagen Polo north on the busy N4 motorway towards the Drakensberg Mountains.

At a crosswalk in downtown Durban

Durban Market

Durban street scene