Durban on the Coast

Durban

If you are like me, you did not know that South Africa even had a city named Durban. Well, it does. It’s a coastal city, about five hours southeast of Johannesburg.

You might wonder why we would go to Durban and not to Cape Town. That is a legitimate thing to wonder about, but let me answer with three words: it’s too far. Cape Town would be a whole day’s journey one way, and we didn’t feel like spending two of our days in the car. Yes, we could have flown, but apparently the weather there is nasty anyway, so this trip will end up Capeless.

Durban was recommended by many here in Joburg (short for Johannesburg,) as a good place to experience the coast, especially since it was about 20 degrees warmer there. They were right. After the long drive and the struggle to get to our hotel, we set out to experience the beach. It reminded me a lot of Santa Monica, with piers and restaurants and amusement rides and jugglers and mimes and sand castle builders and an ocean. One of FIFA’s official fan fests was right next to our hotel on the beach. There were lots of fans watching the tournament games on a big screen.

We could have gone swimming, but we decided just to get our feet wet in the Indian Ocean, which I was seeing for the first time. Then we walked north along the beach. The shops and attractions kept going and going. It was impressive, even though most of the architecture was from the 50’s and 60’s. That must have been when the city’s tourism first boomed.

Along the walk, we watched Netherlands fans walking back from their game with Japan, which was at the Durban stadium. There were thousands of them, and they all were wearing the team’s color: orange (your right if you say that orange is not in their flag, but maybe they were afraid of getting shot accidentally by deer hunters.) We’d see one goofy outfit, only to see it trumped by a goofier one in the next batch of fans. Their fans are intense.

We thought it was great to have a hotel with a view of the ocean and the fan fest, until we celebrated Mass in our hotel room. Let’s just say that the music from the fan fest was not out of Gather or Worship hymnals. The proximity to the fan fest also became an issue when we tried to go to sleep, though the music mercifully ended at 11pm, 45 minutes after the last game was over.

After Mass I ate a King Steer burger along the beach, and then we watched the Cameroon/Denmark game. The four minute walk to our hotel room after the game was a nice feature, offsetting the noise in our room.

The next day Fr. Mitchel and I started with a walk on the beach to the south. Then we ate breakfast, packed up, and made our way to Drackensburg National Park.

But that is for a different post. ‘Nuff said.

God Bless,

Fr. Scott