Impalas, Lizards, Zebras & afternoon tea

Well the first 48 hours in Durban have been a real constrast to that of the Cape. It rained pretty much all of yesterday and cast a kind of gloom over the city. We are a few thousand feet above sea level here and the mist kind of clings to the hillside, so you feel you are really in the jungle.

Yesterday, Susan and I drove into town in search of some factory outlet surf shops. Managed to score two pairs of new boardies and a nice keychain for 300 Rand, all good! Took a bit of a tour through the city and saw some of the shanty town settlements, quite sad to see so many people living on the poverty line, when 2 minutes up the road you have a rich mansion.

Anyway lets not get too down…

We also checked out the beach front, which again is a real contrast to that of CT. It is kind of more in line with Brighton than anything else, but maybe it was the rain that made it look not so special.

Went out for dinner last night with Pete and Sue and had a nice feed and a little wine etc.

Today woke up to a beautiful day, spent the morning around the pool and toured the grounds (5 acres) with video and digital camera, got a few nice shots. Had brunch by the pool, and then Sue and I went for a bit of a tour.

This afternoon we have been up to Shongweni Dam which incorporates a small game reserve. We drove around the reserve and saw a group of Impala, and a 1.5 metre long monitor lizard. To get to the park you have to drive through an African hill settlement, which was really interesting, as we were the only white people crusing through.

We then stopped for some afternoon tea at the Rob Roy Hotel which overlooks the Valley of 1000 hills, the view is magnificent and you can see hills that stretch for miles and miles. We also saw Egyptian Ibis birds on the railing as we were tucking into our scones and jam.

We then headed back home via Alveston and saw Zebra and Blesbok by the roadside, just amazing to see all these animals just hanging out and doing their thing.

This evening Sue and I popped to the gym, she has a new training programme, and I got in the pool and mixed it up and showed the locals what a real swim is all about!

Now I am just tucking into a beer and settling down for the evening back at the ranch, Sue has cooked up a storm in the kitchen, and Pete, Sue and I will be getting ready for tucker time any minute now!

All that remains is to say I’m getting psyched for my first day’s surfing down at North beach tomorrow morning, hope everyone back home is well, catch you all soon!