Durban Executive Summary

• Once again the Thompson Touring Company directions are, shall we say, less than specific

• A whole lotta curry happening in Durban

• Downtown Durban turns into traffic chaos as Zuma is officially cleared of corruption charges - or rather, they are dropped

• A nice diversion but probably not somewhere I'd make an effort to visit again

We were scheduled to stay at Umphlanga Rocks (pronounced 'oom-shl-AHNGA' - the 'ph' is an 'Shhh' sound) north of Durban for 2 nights after our day trip to Eshowe. Umphlanga Rocks is a relatively upper class area right on the rocky beach. It is the first time we stayed in an 'unfenced/ungated' place, which allowed us to walk around a bit and feel like we were in a normal town instead of a gated community (either because of crime or wild animals). A week and a half into the trip and we were hitting our stride with South Africa but at the same time sad to have left the safaris behind.

Dad spent a few weekends here as a kid and remembered the scents of curry and spice wafting through the air. Of course this has been replaced by car exhaust and normal city smells, but the curry and spice market was still there. Durban has a huge population of Indian heritage, or SouthEast Asian (Indonesia/Malay), as a result of slave trade and immigration over the years. As a consequence the food is extremely spicy and heavily influenced by Indian cooking. One of the local dishes is called 'bunny chow' which is a takeaway dish invented when the blacks and 'coloureds' couldn't eat in a restaurant. Bunny chow is essentially a portable curry - served in a hallowed out white doughy bread roll with a bread lid so it could be eaten like a sandwhich. I had some the first night - have to say I prefer naan and basmati as curry accompaniments to white bread. The curry also nearly blew my head off (and I don't mind the occasional bit of hot food).

We were driven around the next day by a taxi driver to some of the key sights in Durban. It was good to see the city itself - beaches, botanic gardens, spice market, and the old government buildings in the centre itself. It was packed with people, with lots of street vendors and side street markets. Once again very few (if any) whites were amongst the crowds in the areas we were in.

Driving into the city centre, our taxi was side-swiped by a minibus crossing 3 lanes of traffic to turn right (in front of us). I'm surprised this was the first accident I'd witnessed given the crazy driving I'd already seen! Our car was surrounded by the minibus driver and several mates/witnesses arguing with our driver about the cause of the accident and how much damage there was. Meanwhile the Reinertsens were sitting inside the car with raised eyebrows thinking 'well...glad we decided not to drive into the Durban centre today!'