Christmas in Durban (plus tourism to Lesotho and Western Cape)

Counting down to Christmas in Durban. Decorations have appeared (far too early as always) and work Christmas parties are in full swing. School holidays have started and the hoards are descending on the beach. Meanwhile we've been settling into Durban life, working on the boat and have had ourselves a little holiday in the Western Cape and a day trip to the Kingdom of Lesotho.

Durban is properly The Big Smoke for the first time since Brissie. Population of about 5 million, the second busiest port in Africa, a marina sandwiched between the CBD and the port with a long stretch of coastline (with esplanade and surf breaks) about a kilometre away. 

In a lot of ways it's just like Brisbane: relatively small, subtropical city with beaches close by. Locals say about twenty or thirty years ago it was just like Brisbane but there's been a lot of changes in South Africa since then and Durban certainly has a completely different vibe now. Downtown Durban is a bit run-down, busy, crowded and a little chaotic. The footpaths are lined with informal market stalls and the traffic (especially the minibuses) is either trying to crash into each other or run down pedestrians. Just like Queensland, the locals are fond of walking very slowly even when the weather isn't stinking hot. There are some lovely 19^th century buildings (town hall, post office, shops etc.) that could be in London or Sydney. Apparently there's been a lot of migration from neighbouring countries in the past couple of decades contributing to problems of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and crime. Migrants are more likely to live and trade in the city centre while locals have fled to the suburbs. Safety is an issue here and we've been given the low down on which streets are safe to walk and which are not. Walking around anywhere after dark is a definite no no. The main streets in town feel perfectly safe (apart from getting run over) during the day as does the esplanade along the beach and at the marina we're blessed with a police station so we can merrily walk to both yacht clubs whenever the mood takes us. So life's a bit of a compromise here – goods and services are cheap (about half of Australian prices) but you have to drive/take Ubers, pay a car guard when you park, have security (electric fences, armed security response, guards) at your home, only use ATMs inside shopping centres and basically never leave home after dark. And it often feels a bit like the old days of Empire and white privilege – the only places I've really seen any white people are at the yacht clubs and the surf club where almost everyone is white, except the staff. And there's definitely a lingering wistful longing for the way Durban was a generation or so ago among those who were lucky enough to have been in the privileged minority.

Monster birds patrol the marina docks (Trivia: they're called "walk ons" in South Africa. The docks, not the birds. No idea what the birds are but they're about 3 or 4 foot tall).

But we've settled into life here, joined the Royal Natal Yacht Club (the oldest Royal club in the southern hemisphere – take that Australia) and the Durban Surf Lifesaving Club (the only non-Australian club to have won the world championships), found the local supermarkets (one that's walkable to and a better one that we Uber to) and laundry and tested the local microbrewery (it passed). We've found our radio stations: East Coast Gold plays the 60s & 70s at 7pm, the 80s at 8pm and the 90s at 9pm and LM FM out of Maputo just plays awesome music all the time and the occasional sprinkling of Portuguese makes it seem exotic. The locals are outrageously friendly and helpful and alot of the culture and lifestyle here are very similar to Australia. In the mornings we go to the surf club and I have a run on the esplanade while Karl surfs or swims or runs. 

Karl's locker.

Then we come back and work on the boat (recent projects include fixing the genset and unclogging the head hoses). In the evenings we try (and sometimes even succeed) to resist the pull of the yacht clubs. If we need something in the chandlery we get to have lunch at the microbrewery next door (Karl has always been very good at needing something in a chandlery). There's been loads of boats passing through – it seems we were ahead of most people coming across the Indian Ocean and now that we've stopped they're all flooding past: boats we vaguely recognise from Darwin, boats we saw in Réunion, boats we've been regularly bumping into and brand new boats we've never come across before.

Durban's contribution to the culinary world - the Bunny Chow (curry in a breadloaf).

What you find in your head hoses.

Karl squeezes in to access the toilet plumbing, a lovely job.

When you wonder what on earth you were thinking leaving a perfectly good house in Brisbane.

A proud Karl with his no-longer-leaking, freshly repainted and (most importantly given he took it all apart and put it back together again) still functioning genset.

It's official, there is no end to the sewing jobs.

Reward beers at Robson's Real Beer, yum.

Western Cape Holiday:

So we made a snap decision one day and took a little holiday, just because we can, over to the Western Cape. After consulting Tuam's experts in South African holidaying (Mary & Der) we decided on an itinerary of Cape Town, vineyards and the Garden Route across to Knysna. I immensely enjoyed the little bubble of airport/airplane – like McDonald's, it's reassuringly exactly the same the world over. Then we got to Cape Town and bam! So shiny and clean and bright and new and full of white people and absolutely jam packed with tourists. 

It feels very European and everyone speaks Africaans. Took a bit of getting used to. We wandered around the Waterfront, found Cunard's Queen Elizabeth cruise ship (source of many of the white legged, baseball cap wearing, camera toting tourists I assume), found a leftover Clipper race yacht (awaiting repair after a collision at the start line) and found a couple of bars with excellent people watching. Next day we went to visit Cape Town Castle (despite the best efforts of our delightful Uber driver to talk us out of it) which is the old Dutch East India Company fort from back when they were in charge. It's a fantastic building in an amazing setting under Table Mountain and is still a working barracks with soldiers wandering around. And just when you thought it couldn't get any better Karl got to fire a cannon (he was on a high for days and still regularly replays the video). 

We wandered through town, past gorgeous old Dutch era buildings and Victorian buildings, through gardens and ended up in a bar with 99 craft beers on the menu. After lunch we walked along the esplanade by the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic! And it smelled like the Atlantic. And the breeze blowing off it felt like an Atlantic breeze (brrr). Just like being in Salthill.

After Cape Town we hired a car (after half an hour on the phone to our bank from the car hire office, nothing's ever easy) and drove west to Stellenbosch in wine country. Such a pretty little town, old Cape Dutch architecture, a university, a couple of student bars and lots of good wine. 

Waiting for the winebus outside our uncharacteristically (Karl chose to splurge) nice hotel.

Next day we did a hop-on-hop-off tour (such a good idea) of the wineries but did less hopping on and off and more eating and drinking so only managed to make it to 3 of the 5 wineries on the list. The driver seemed disappointed in us. 

Vineyards in beautiful settings.

Cape Dutch architecture.

So easy to linger, so hard to drag yourself away.

Next on the itinerary was continuing southwest towards Knysna (which is on the South Coast) through some stunning scenery – rocky mountains, rolling hills, flat cultivated fields, parched dusty nothingness and absolutely no houses. Not a village, not a settlement, nothing. 

I was initially a little underwhelmed by Knysna (described as “lovely” by my Tuam experts) which seemed like any other random and not particularly interesting small town. It does have a lovely yacht club though, built on stilts out over the water. 

We went every evening and found ourselves sitting around gossiping with a friendly bunch of local sailors who tried to convince us that we wouldn't die if we tried to sail in through the very narrow and rocky heads. Somehow their advice to “approach the head until you hear the mussels clicking” didn't make it seem tempting. We did find a nice newly developed part of town stretching out into the lagoon which was pleasant for a stroll and lunch and is in a very pretty setting. It had plenty of warning signs about the risk of falling in the water. 

 

 

So overall I would agree in the end that Knysna is indeed “lovely”.

Lesotho daytrip:

Lesotho is one of those places that you see on a map and immediately feel you should go there. It's a small kingdom completely surrounded by South Africa and is only a few hours west of Durban through a spectacular mountain pass. It was a British Protectorate until the 60s when it gained independence and has a population of about 2 million. We only visited a village in the extreme east of the country, just across the border, for a quick flavour of the country and to get up into the mountains for a day.

To get there you drive west to the Drakensberg Mountains and the South African border post. Then there's 8km of  “no man's land” on a winding, bumpy, four wheel-drive track up the steep Sani Pass until you emerge at the top plateau and the Lesotho border post. 

It's another world up there. Suddenly it's cold with a biting wind. It's flat and bare (too high an altitude for trees) and the villagers rely on farming sheep for wool trade. Apparently the Basotho people ended up here because they were trying to avoid being conquered by King Shaka (in the early 19th century) and incorporated into the Zulu nation so they ran for the hills. The shepherds, wrapped in their blankets and wearing rubber boots (lots of iron in the rocks and frequent thunderstorms being a dangerous combination), were a wee bit Star Wars Sand People. The village is taking it's first steps towards taking advantage of tourism but it's still in that awkward, slightly voyeuristic phase with hints of begging. Still, it was interesting to see.

A house with Sand People dudes on the right.

Then we got to have lunch at the highest pub in Africa! At the Sani Mountain Lodge.

In defence of my expression it was cold, windy and raining. I did enjoy the pub though, the inside bit.

Christmas:

So now we're on the countdown to Christmas. Ingredients have been sourced for a roast with stuffing and brussels sprouts. Trifle has been tracked down and some mince pies and mulled wine have already made an appearance. With most of the boat tasks done we're feeling in a holiday mood and in fact right now I can hear the gentle hum and occasional rattle of the icemaker which Karl has broken out so we can have margaritas at the end of the day. Yay, Christmas! On Stephen's Day/Boxing Day we fly to Ireland for a couple of weeks and then back here to continue sailing west around to Cape Town and beyond.

Giant gingerbread lighthouse at the Oyster Box Hotel, uMhlanga Rocks.

Happy Christmas Brisbanites and hope you enjoy Ben & Katrina's Christmas Eve BBQ (but not as much as ours). Happy Christmas Galwegians we'll see you soon! And Happy Christmas to anyone not in one of those two categories too, particularly the sailors we've met along the way this year.

Christmas Harleys.

Christmas on Gráinne.

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