and now, a jump in the Indian ocean!

We woke up late (7am!  That’s late compared to the 5:30am wake up call at Notten Camp...).   It was a sunny and pleasantly warm day (78 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 Celsius for a high today) albeit a touch windy.  I took a stroll by the ocean before breakfast:  Durban and its entire surrounding area sits on a beach that is over 300 miles long, providing endless views, surfing and wave jumping opportunities.

We have another leisurely breakfast (that has been the one constant of this vacation – venues, scenery, climates have changed, but breakfasts have been long and luxurious throughout!), then took a cab to Durban itself:  Our driver also gave us a quick tour of the city, before depositing us on the main beach area.  Durban is very different from Cape Town- they are both large cities on the ocean, and both are beautiful, but Durban is somehow much more African:  Cape Town has kept a very “English colonial” feel to it, with it’s Virginian buildings, its statues and parks.  Durban bustles more, is more diverse, has women carrying heavy loads on their heads, next to women in Muslim veils, next to white families, all walking together amongst street vendors that sell everything from fresh produce to fake crocs shoes.  The downside of Durban is that, while Cape Town felt very safe (and we were told by everyone there that we could freely walk everywhere, which we did), it only feels safe here in limited areas, and at the cost of very strong security measures:  our hotel, and basically all of Umhlanga, is surrounded by a six foot walls, topped with an electric fence.  The town is patrolled not just by a lot of police, but also by 2 separate private police forces.  The beach of Durban and the entire boardwalk – which are pretty and lively, and full of cute stores, restaurants, and families of all colors, is great.  But we were strongly warned not to walk away from it at all.

Durban is really a good example of all the possibilities, and all the potential problems of South Africa… but for today – we just enjoyed to sights, the beaches, the diverse crowds.

For lunch, we had the most common fast food here: bunnies – it does not involve eating any rabbit; I don’t know why it’s called that…  It is a hollowed out brioche (not as sweet as French brioche, but similar otherwise) filled with different India curries.  I had chicken, Joe had mutton.  The odd juxtaposition of cuisines works better than you’d think, and these were quite good.

 Then we looked at the fancy sandcastles on the beach - they are quite amazing.

Then we went back to Umhlanga – took a walk on the beautiful beach:

I went for a wonderful swim in the Indian Ocean (I could not possibly not go!).  The water temperature is about 78 degrees, same as the air, the waves are long and rolling… it was blissful…. Although I did miss Claire and Emily – waves are more fun with them jumping in them too…..

Since Joe and I are celebrating our 23^rd anniversary on Sunday, while we will be on an airplane (we should be home before dinner, but much to tired to have any fun....), we decided to have a nice dinner tonight, and went to “Ile Maurice”, a French/island restaurant (Ile Maurice is Mauritius Island in French).  We had some lovely food (in a very hot kind of way) and wine – by the time I remembered that I wanted to take picture of this meal, here is all that was left of it (this used to be banana flambé au coco)….

Tomorrow we start the long trek home – Durban to Cape Town, Cape Town to London, London to New York.