April 8;
The ship pulled into Durban at 7:00am. Our initial reaction is that Durban is a bigger surprise than Maputo. The downtown and wharf areas are impressive. This is a modern city. Durban is the gateway to KwaZulu, the Zulu Homeland.
Our limited time in port prevented us from visiting an actual Zulu village so in midmorning we left on our tour to a recreation of a Zulu village in the 1000 Hills area. The site also had a small crocodile and snake display. As we departed our bus, we were greeted by several Zulu tribal members in tradition dress. We later found out that single women are bare above the waist. Apparently all the women were either married or they chose not to follow tradition. Wayne was disappointed.
In addition to the tribal entertainment, we were in the area called 1000 Hills. While the day was misty and overcast below is what we saw from the edge of the village.
After the tribal show, we visited the crocodile “farm” and snake pens. The “farm” was actually just a series of pens holding crocodiles of various ages and sizes. The youngest was eight months (and about 12” long) to one 100+ year old male croc pictured below, who weighed in at 2,000 pounds and was over 15’ long.
While traveling to and from the village, we were able to see some of the Durban city sights and neighborhoods. If you didn’t look too carefully, you would think you were in any western city but…..we noticed all the middle and upper class homes were surrounded by high walls and fitted with either barbed wire or and electrified fence at the top.
As we left Durban, the South African Navy frigate (or destroyer) was leaving port. The surprising thing was that they used tugs to pull them away from the pier.
We also had a nice sunset as we entered the Indian Ocean and head to East London.
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