Introduction to South Africa

Our first visit to South Africa began with a stop in Richards Bay on the east coast. We would have another two stops before arriving in Cape Town, and reaching the end of the cruise.

Richards Bay is not really a tourist destination, but more still a mining and industry town. That seemed odd to us, given that the waterfront around the working harbour is all part of a nature conservancy, but there was enough fish, birds and other wildlife to suggest that all of the companies there are being responsible in their activities.

Our excursion from Richards Bay was to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve about an hour away from the town. Over the past few days, we had lost a good number of fellow cruise guests to overland safari trips ranging from one night to four nights in length. We had decided not to take any of these, since we figured there was very little chance that any of these could compete with the experiences we had in 2013 on our Tauck safari, but we did decide to do a day trip to one of the reserves to see what it was about.

No that's not an optical illusion - in the distance are the some of the
highest vegetated sand dunes in the world, as opposed to the
ones in the desert where nothing grows.

Donkeys outside of a 'beehive hut', the traditional homes
of some of the earliest migrants to this part of Africa from the north.

The reserve we visited is huge, about 960 square kilometres of wild bush. All of the big game is in the reserve, it would just be a matter of finding it. We weren't sure of just how many animals we would see, given that we arrived there at 11:30 a.m. and only had a two-hour game drive ahead of us, but we set off with 7 other guests in our open safari truck to see what we could find.

All in all not so bad a day, but nothing like our previous safari experience.

The next day we were in the city of Durban, supposedly 'the' resort area of South Africa. From what we saw, the resorts must be a good way outside of town, because the city centre certainly did not look like a place where tourists would want to hang out.

A market stall selling all kinds of masala, or spice mixes. They even have one called
'Mother-in-law Exterminator'!

Some of the beadwork items for sale.

Our tour guide told us about Durban's history and the way that the European explorers took advantage of and even killed many of the indigenous people in their quest to claim the new lands for their own countries. That is probably what started the animosity between white and black in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It seemed to have died down as the settlers and the locals began to work together, but it wasn't until the 1950s when the South African government imposed 'apartheid', or dividing the people by race and colour, deciding where they could live and what they could do, that everything blew up again. The abolition of apartheid in the 1990s has now only served to undermine the economy for everyone. According to our guide, the vast majority of young people, white, black or coloured, will never be able to find a job, and many who can possibly afford it are leaving South Africa entirely to try to make it elsewhere.

A lovely example of art deco near the waterfront

The city hall

We visited the Botanical Garden, which is quite beautiful. One of the prized plants in the garden is the single specimen of the ancient Cycad, a stiff-leafed type of palm. It was discovered and brought back to Durban by James Wood, and is the only one still in existence. In fact, ANY cycad of this type anywhere in the world now originated from this tree.

Staghorn fern growing on a tree

Lotus flowers in the pond

This gorgeous little bird is a Southern Red Bishop

The orchid display

The famous Encephalartos Woodii, the mother
of all the world's cycads

A Strelizia Reginae, or Bird of Paradise flower

We continued with our city tour, stopping at an overlook to see a very interesting sports combination - the local horse racetrack, which is quite long, encircles the city golf course, which must be shorter than 18 holes. That certainly was unexpected!

Looking over the green space that is the golf course. If you look closely around the edges
you will see the racetrack.

One of the popular pastimes here on the south coast is surfing,
and with those waves it isn't surprising.

After our return to the ship we talked to others who visited the "boardwalk" area, which is where the resorts are, but no one seemed to be overly impressed by what they had seen. Overall a rather disappointing day.

That night we ate at Umi Uma again and had a few different things from previous visits:

Tuna tataki and little lobster tacos

Rock shrimp and vegetable tempura

A selection of sashimi along with dragon roll

And the following day we had the Apropos Joseph Ribkoff fashion show. The Ribkoff ambassador had come on board in Mauritius and brought a selection of the new collection along, so we had the chance to model for our fellow guests.

Modeling palazzo pants and a black asymmetrical
top

And right after that, the World Cruise Gala Buffet took place. This time we just looked around, took some photos, and ate at the Marketplace buffet upstairs.

And the next day we arrived in Port Elizabeth, our last port before Cape Town. Here we took a walking tour around the old part of town. Our guide, Tracy, used to be a schoolteacher, and had a great way of injecting funny anecdotes into the historical information she was giving us.

Port Elizabeth has strong ties with Nelson Mandela (we're not sure why), so there are many sites related to him throughout the old city centre. The most widespread is the exhibit of quotations from Mandela during his years in public life, which are meant for people to stop, read and reflect on his words.

A mural by the waterfront depicting the history of people in
the area of Port Elizabeth

A few of the Mandela quotations

A very impressive site was the Donkin Reserve. Sir Rufane Donkin was in charge of the first settlement here, and he named it after his wife, Elizabeth. When she died, he built the pyramid up on this hill as a memorial. The mosaic work around this park is quite lovely, especially the walk on top.

According to Tracy, school children come up here and
say ' Wow! It's just like the traffic now!' If you look closely,
you'll see a couple of fender benders in the front, and cars outside
of their lanes elsewhere.

Representing some of the animal life in the area

The beautiful design at the base of the pyramid

We had a short rest stop at the Grand Hotel, which has been restored to reflect its glory days. Monica said it was the kind of place where you'd expect to see Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot wander into the parlour....

And they even had an original one-armed bandit
standing in the corner!

We also visited the Athaeneum, a theatre that also houses a tribute to Mandela all done in beaded squares. But outside of the theatre we found a really interesting mosaic. Looking at the ground, things seem a little distended, but when you look carefully at the reflection in the stainless steel post, you will find that all the animals and flowers depicted look just right. Amazing!

Our walking tour ended at Fort Frederick, where we had a great overlook on the working port and the bay. On the bus back to the port, we had a chance to see another art installation close up - the taxis that could drive right into concrete walls. 

Port Elizabeth was our last stop before Cape Town and the end of our 37 days on Crystal Serenity, but we would have the best tour guides to take us around Cape Town once we got there. We were looking forward to seeing Juergen and finally meeting Maria, but we still had to finish the 'P' word - packing!