A Day in Durban

Well the day was set aside for some touristy stuff, however the Terracan had to have the Oil Seal on the Diff replaced. (No real idea what that means, other than it could be very costly if not done) So off we were to Hyandai,Springfield, which are open on a Saturday morning. This was no casual “pop-in”, it was well planned and organized and booked and all and sundry knew about it and us arriving. We were there at 8 and left the car there for 2 hours and headed off to the nearest Wimpy for breakfast. Well we breakfasted, walked through the shops, went to Makro across the road, went to price their wines and then went back to the garage. Was the car ready????? An hour later, yes!

Back to Makro to get some wine and then we headed to the Moses Mabhinda stadium, as I wanted to do the ride to the top with the little funicular. We me a friend of Dick’s there and the 3 of us went of on the ride, pensioner’s discount and all! 

The stadium

On the way up

The view from the top is well worth the trip as you have a view of all sides of the city. Nothing like Cape Town, as Durban is built on many hills. Even the squatter camps look good here. The stadium is also located right next to Kingmead, the home of the Sharks and that is “holy ground” in this part of the world. I thought the people in Cape Town were passionate about the Stormers, but let me tell you we are NOTHING compared to the Sharks supporters in Natal. They are just everywhere even when the Sharks are not playing!

Speaks for itself. Note Terracan in reflection

After the stadium we went into the centre of town and took a walk through the Workshop, which is a mall redeveloped on the site of the old railway workshops. It is just a mall, but outside there was activities galore. When we got there we noticed a huge gathering and the car guard informed us that it was “church”. Well there was a huge crown and a preacher who spoke in Zulu, I assume, and an interpreter who translated instantly into English. It nearly sounded like those songs we used to sing in junior school where the one lot started and then the next lot would fall in singing the same words. Cannot remember what we used to call it. Fraire Jacque was one. It must have been some religious message as we could make out some words like “Jesus” but there was a lot of hype alright. When we came out of the centre later there was a “music interval”.

The Crowd listening to the Preacher

An Historical sign

The city is colourful and there is a lovely vibe all around. I suppose it is so as it was a Saturday. We walked around and id a bit of the historical stuff and then we went to the Wilson Wharf for a spot of lunch. Lovely day and tomorrow we are going to do the uShaka Marine world and then off to visit friends for lunch.

Tugs at work