Durban

I drove 1,500km with friends to Durban and back this weekend and having nothing but this lousy photo to show for it! So not a photogenic weekend, but another great one all the same. Durban, down on the east coast by the Indian Ocean, is apparently the least racialy segregated city in South Africa. If I remember by stats correctly, it also has the largest port in Africa, and 9th biggest in the world. Finally, it is home to a large East Indian population (= delicious curry lunch on Saturday), sandy beaches, and great waves. It was such a joy to see the ocean again, to get off the land, I screamed like a child the first time I jumped in and got knocked around, I was that happy. The weather wasn’t great, but the water was warm, and when I wasn’t on the beach I sat overlooking it from the patio of the hostel.

So instead of getting a nasty sunburn, as expected, I got through the last of the SA books I brought with me from home: “Disgrace,” by J.M. Coetzee, which is a rather sombre reflection on human relationships and racial tension in post-apartheid South Africa, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading here - one of the benefits of early nights behind locked gates - which is pretty much the greatest thing ever after the year and a half of servitude to academic papers in grad school.

Also became acquainted with “White Africans” at the bar: two shots each of amarula, vodka, and coffee liquere - delicious, but after the second I was pretty much ready for bed.

I wasn’t sure I’d make it to Durban, and don’t suppose I’ll get back there, so I was happy for this chance to go down with a group of friends and spend a couple days by the sea with no plan and not much to do but relax.

Stay tuned for next week’s posting on KRUGER!