Durban, South Africa.......Friday April 6th..........We were strongly advised by several people not to wear any obvious jewelry or wander the city on our own as the crime rate is very high away from the more populated tourist beach areas.Being the reasonable people that we are, we and two friends rented a taxi for several hours to take us out of the city to an area called 1000 Hills. We visited a kind of safari park where they bred crocodiles and snakes. Seeing the crocodiles being fed raw meat (not tourists we hope) was quite a sight. This was followed by a performance of Zulu dancers and singers and a tour of their village huts. We're sure the huts were for the benefit of tourists and that they got dressed after we'd gone and drove home to their condos. It was all great fun though. A visit to a craft village followed before our guy took us back to The Golden Mile in Durban. This is a beautiful beach area safe for tourists. Our taxi driver was most insistent that we stayed there and did not venture even a short distance into any side streets.The city streets we drove through were not very attractive and, being Good Friday holiday, were crowded with black folk. It would seem that, although South Africa has made great strides with its democratically elected black government, poor housing, high unemployment, and a serious crime rate means they have a long way to go yet.The countryside was pretty, rather like England in places, with nice houses and an excellent road system. Back at the dockside there was a troupe of Zulu dancers giving us a send-off to our next port of call, Cape Town.