I awoke to find that I, once again, had a sea view, albeit between the buildings. I sauntered down for breakfast (R50.00) to find that it finished at 09:00 hours. A quick enquiry and a cooked breakfast was laid before me, just the way to start the day. Due to my limited time in Durban I wanted to take their equivalent of the 'Red Bus' tour of the city as this is always a good way to get the feel of a place. Reception informed me that in Durban these are the 'Ricksha' city bus tours, if I walked down to the next block and turned right I would see the bus stop before the Police Station. As luck would have it a 'Ricksha' bus passed me as I walked out of the hotel. The sky was overcast but at least it was not raining. I found the stop which stated that a bus would arrive every thirty minutes. Just time to nip over to the sea front and take a couple of photographs.
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| Not the bus I wanted! |
I returned to the stop and waited and waited. I relented to technology using my mobile phone to google 'Ricksha City Tours' discovering that their office was next to the North Beach Tourist Information Office. A friendly policeman told me that this was just up the street from whence I came. It transpired that the tours only operate at 09:00 and 13:00 hours lasting for three hours with no hop-on hop-off or extended ticket duration. Significantly they will only run with a minimum of four passengers. I was advised to come back at about 12:30 to see if a tour would run. Perhaps this is the 'out of season' schedule. I took the opportunity to investigate the Tourist Information Office where the very helpful staff provided me with maps of Durban and the region and a mine of other information, tours etc. A coffee on the beach was called for to study this information. By this time the sun was breaking through the clouds so the tour looked hopeful.
I returned to the office but the news was not hopeful. A young lady approached me to inquire if I was waiting for the tour. One o'clock came and went and no tour. I asked the lady if she would try again tomorrow but no. Hmm, this is wasting my limited time. A ticket is R100.00 so I thought why not at approximately R17 to the £, I bought three tickets and off we went. Our guide was a mine of useful information and background on the area. Sitting on the upper deck made it difficult to catch some of the buildings and markets but I definitely got a feel for the place. For instance, there are three architecturally beautiful railway stations in Durban all converted to other uses. The new railway station which operates the metro to outlying areas is in a modern concrete bunker!
The mosque was the biggest in the southern hemisphere catering for 7,000 worshippers until a few months ago when the new mosque in Johannesburg opened to 10,000. The docks are the busiest in Africa. I could go on. There are immense riches to abject poverty all within this teaming city. I would have liked to visit the street markets but time did not permit. Did I mention the revolving restaurant just like our Post Office Tower in London, the football stadium big enough to also take a cricket ground and a 360 degree view from the top I could go on.
The tour over after a stop for coffee at one of the many shopping malls, machine gun totin' security guards were somewhat disconcerting and another at a high point overlooking the city to take photographs, I returned to the hotel to have a look at the photographs. Alas there is no WiFi so the post is delayed, just like the Royal Mail really lol. In the evening I visited one of the cafe/bars for fish and chips; what else on the sea front.
Tomorrow I have a cunning plan Blackadder. My trip to my secret destination.
A clue: Who said 'Not a lot of people know that' but not whilst he was fighting here.
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