Durban, hmmm ....

April 15, 2024

Durban, hmmm ....

 


In our new itinerary, it seems the folks in charge of telling us where we are going and what we will be doing when we get there have had to do a little hustling and with all the other cruise and commercial traffic all going the same way and avoiding the Red Sea, it has been a bit of a scramble to get ports and fuel and supplies. 


  

That being said, shore excursions are not that high on the Captain’s priority list.  Durban was not a bright spot on the tourist list.  There was not that much to see and do in the city, though it is the 3rd most populous city in South Africa behind Johannesburg and Cape Town.  




We did visit a nice botanical garden called Durban Botanic Garden.  It is the oldest surviving botanical garden in Africa, est. 1849. We strolled around the place with our new friend, Blacky.  We saw a fever tree (thought once to be the source of malaria, hence the name), a canon ball tree, lots of beautiful flowers and even a rainbow eucalyptus tree.  Thanks to Sparty for the pixelated photo of the eucalyptus tree! Beautiful!

















A quick stop at the Moses Mabhida sports arena complex, home to the AmaZulu football club, was about the only other thing to see.  Unfortunately, a lady had her phone stolen in broad daylight when a guy walked up and snatched it and took off running.  Like I said, not a bright spot.



One very interesting thing that happened that day was how our harbor pilot got aboard the ship.  We have never seen this before and even the Captain agreed that he had never seen it, but at 4:00 in the morning in the dark as we were nearing the port area, here comes a helicopter, and lo and behold a cable brought the pilot to our back deck.  All this happened because the seas and currents were a bit tricky to come along side in the boat as they usually do.  The helicopter hovered over the side of our ship and as the pilot descended the copter slowly moved over our deck and deposited him on the deck.  The entire process was performed quickly and safely.  Pretty neat to watch.   I have a feeling that Holland had to pay a hefty price as this is not the norm and anything aviation is more costly.   But all went well and they used the same process later that day after the pilot got us safely out the harbor on our way out.









Off to Cape Town we go! Praying for smooth seas.









Vialula and LeRoy

Location: Durban, South Africa

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 24, 2024 at 5:37 PM

    Still enjoying this wonderful adventure..

    ReplyDelete

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