Durban

December 30^th, 2024

I watched us sailing in to Durban, trying to remember what it looked like in the 60s when we used to sail from Mombasa to Durban to see my grandparents.

I remember tall buildings on the waterfront, but they didn’t look anything like what I was seeing this morning.

Also, there was no cruise terminal back in those days, we used to dock in the cargo port.

I watched the gangway being lowered in preparation for our arrival.

And in no time at all we were almost there.

I know that bow thrusters and movable propellers help immensely with docking, but I am always amazed at how easily our ship just seems to slide into place. We had a small speed boat and despite attending classes on how to dock the thing, I never even could work out how to line it up with our dock and if Brian didn’t grab the controls each time, we would have crashed landed. Yet, here is 32,000 gross tonnes of ship elegantly lining up with the pier. Very impressive.

We had arranged to spend the day with another friend from medical school. It is very handy having these friends around the world!

They met us at the dock and whisked us away to the beautiful golf course community where they reside and play golf north of Durban.

We went straight to the restaurant in the community situated on a lovely little lake, and I was able to have a toasted chicken mayonnaise sandwich. There is something about South African toasted chicken mayo sandwiches that makes them the best in the world. It was a great way to start the day.

We then went back to their house overlooking a fairway on the golf course and spent a wonderful morning catching up with everyone’s news.

Lunch was at Bel Punto in Umdhloti Beach.

I had been so upset that I was missing out on my peri peri prawns in Maputo, but they had peri peri prawns on the menu, so I was a happy camper. They were not quite a good as Mozambican peri peri prawns, but it was very close. And of course, it’s been several years since I was last in Mozambique, so I may be remembering them as better than they really were.

For dessert we had Don Pedros. This is something I have only had in South Africa. It is made with ice-cream, cream and whisky. Now that probably sounds quite nasty, especially to non-whisky people like myself. However, they actually work, and when made properly they are delicious. We have tried to make them at home, but somehow fail, they never taste as good as in South African restaurants. Anyway, these were excellent, as was the wine our friend chose – Oyster Catcher sauvignon blanc. So with great company and great food and drink at a beachfront restaurant, it was a really fabulous day. I was quite sorry that we had to leave this all behind and head back to the ship.

One annoying thing about the day was that the authorities insisted that we take out passports ashore with us. This is quite concerning if you are worried about getting them stolen. Luckily, they were safe in our friends’ car, but I am much happier taking my drivers license for ID and leaving our passports on board, especially in countries with a high crime rate. But the ship was adamant about this, so we obeyed. Luckily nothing too untoward happened, but having your passport stolen certainly can have an adverse effect on your cruise.

Back safely on board, passports in hand, we were quite happy to be once more in air conditioning. It had been hot and humid in Durban.

The Seabourn 6 entertained us tonight with another great show, Skyline.

The theme was songs featured from several cities around the world with unique skylines. Well, that wasn’t quite how it turned out, but the performance was another high energy show that was very enjoyable.

There were songs from New York

Rio

Sydney (well really Australia)

Los Angeles (California)

Chicago

And London (well England)

After the show we went on to deck 5 to say goodbye to Durban. We were there just in time to see us getting ready to sail

And see us gradually move away from the cruise terminal

And out into the harbor

We waved goodbye to the pilot (who never saw me waving at him alas so didn’t wave back)

And we watched Durban slowly fade in to the night.

It had been a really wonderful day.

I must admit that I have always been a little bit wary of coming to Durban. Both sets on my grandparents and my parents used to live there. They are now all gone, and I miss them all. But I have such happy memories of my time spent in Durban with them, it’s hard to believe that that is now so many years ago. However, I still feel the excitement of eating ice creams at Noddy’s on the beach or riding in the little train on the sea front, going to the aquarium which is the same one mentioned in Jeremy Taylor’s song “Ag Pleez Deddy”, lunch at the Lido in Amanzintoti, shopping for clothes on West Street, driving through the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The list is endless, the memories gradually fading.

There is another thing that today’s visit brought home to me. I knew it already, but it was so obvious today. A year ago we were in Durban overnight prior to catching the Rovos Rail train to Pretoria. I had booked us into a hotel on the once flourishing sea front. Wow, how things had changed. You can’t swim or really enjoy the beach because of the pollution. Durban station was in darkness in the middle of the day, no lights were working, the escalators at a standstill. You had to wade through rubbish in order to try to find the correct platform. Everything was so run down. Durban was nothing like the thriving city of my childhood. It was so sad.

Today our friends picked us up from the port and whisked us away to the coastal towns north of Durban. It all looked lovely, the roads were perfect, the landscaping was neatly manicured, the other cars on the road looked new and in good shape. You would think that Durban was thriving.

So, if you are only in a city for one day on a cruise you could totally miss the essence of the port. You could think that the area was an impoverished wasteland if that was all you saw on your visit, or else you could think it was a beautiful thriving area. But they are only miles apart. The same is true for many cities in the US. It depends on what you have the time to see.

Cruises give you a glimpse into an area, but you could totally get the wrong opinion of what exactly the port is all about. With one day on an organized tour you just get  a taste of what lies beneath the experience, there is so much more to explore.