We awoke early this morning a few hours before we were to arrive in Durban, South Africa and it was pouring down rain. We went up to the Lido Café to have breakfast and there were just a few people eating breakfast at that hour. We had a nice quiet breakfast and then we went over to the Fitness Center. We exercised for one hour with Anne Marie working out on the treadmill and Keith working out on the elliptical machine. The fitness center was not very crowded either and while we were exercising it was still raining very hard.
We went back to our room to get ready for our shore excursion. The good news is that about 45 minutes before we docked in Durban the rain stopped and we could see that the skies were clearing. By the time we began our tour it was partly sunny which was great news for our tour.
The ship was cleared by the local authorities at around 9:00 AM and we walked off the ship at around 9:15 AM to board our tour bus.
Our original plan was to walk around the town but due to the incidence of crime (more on that later) we recently added a shore excursion, which was called the valley of a Thousand Hills. Initially, as we drove through the downtown area we were given an overview of Durban. Clearly, there are some very nice areas in Durban but at the same time there are many poor areas as well. Many folks are moving out of Durban due to the high crime rate. After making our way through the downtown area we then proceeded another 45 minutes towards the area of our shore excursion. We drove through many new areas where there is strong development and we saw very beautiful countryside with beautiful mountains and valleys many lined with pretty trees and other pretty landscape. Some of the landscape had bushes and trees with very colorful flowers.
Finally, we arrived at the area for the excursion where we visited a kraal village and where we saw Zulu dancers. We also walked through a nice park like setting, which included lots of crocodile, some turtles and a variety of snakes. Our guide did a wonderful job of providing a good deal of information about the crocodiles, turtles and snakes. And, believe it or not one of the crocodiles that we saw was actually 102 years old or should we say 102 years young ☺ since their lifespan can reach 125 or more years. Wow!!
While we have seen some beautiful areas in South Africa from Cape Town to Durban this country is facing some very challenging issues that could have a dramatic affect on its future. Essentially, the country is moving towards a two class rather than a three class for its people; the rich and the poor with the middle class being eliminated overtime. Unemployment is estimated at approximately 40%. While Cape Town was very safe, Durban is not as safe as it has significant crime. And for desperate people who have nothing to lose there is no risk for them to commit various acts of crime. At the same time there are quite a few rich people and they continue to grow as well and we could see the growth in terms of significant construction activity in the suburbs. On top of all of this is the issue of segregation, which is common throughout the country. While conditions are clearly worse in Durban than in Cape Town things could get far worse before they get better and one wonders if things will get violent. There appears to be so much potential for the people of this country but it seems that some radical steps need to be taken to address the distribution of wealth in this country and to address issues such as the high unemployment, crime and the whole issue of segregation. We have met so many nice people and hope that things will work out for them. But, something tells us that there is more downside risk right now.
By the time we returned from the ship the main dining room had already closed so we each had a nice entrée salad in the Lido Café.
This afternoon we took time to reflect on what we have experienced over the past few days and we also reminded ourselves as to how fortunate we are to be able to take a World Cruise. There are so many people around the world who face significant challenges each and every day that many of us take for granted such as where they will sleep that evening, how they will feed their families, where they will find work, etc., that we are so very fortunate to not be in this situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to these people.
We also ran some errands this afternoon before it was time for dinner. This evening we dined by ourselves at Silk Road, the Japanese Specialty Restaurant. We each had a wonderful meal. We had an assortment of sushi, mushroom salad, and for our main entrée we each had cod. We find the food and service in Silk Road to be outstanding. Since we have dined there often, from time to time we try new items such as certain sushi which are not on the menu and there have been times that certain one time items have been sent out for us to try by the chef. This restaurant also has a sushi bar where in addition to ordering sushi one can also order the entire meal. One evening we plan to try this so that we can watch the sushi chefs prepare the sushi. It is clearly a culinary art.
After dinner, we went to the Crystal Cinema to watch a movie in the theatre.
This evening we cruise to Maputo, Mozambique. This is a maiden port of call for Crystal Cruises as its ships have never sailed here before this port is just beginning to attract tourists. As such, there is only one shore excursion planned for this port of call and we decided to pass on that. After tomorrow, we will have three more days at sea.
Keith & Anne Marie
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