The word Natal is Christmas in Portuguese. Natal was the called the last British outpost of South Africa and the language here is all mostly English. Kwazulu was the then tribal self autonomous black state and merged with Natal after independence in '94. Everyone simply calls it KZN now.
Many battles from the Boer war were fought in this province. Durban is the port of choice for goods destined for Gauteng (Johannesburg). Richards bay is an export terminus and all the other towns dotted along the coast are geared to the tourist.
Lets start inland and look at the topography. You will notice many names similar to the UK here.
Newcastle
City Hall and Art Gallery
Not much to see here in the town but just a tad north is Volksrust which is still in my province Mpumalanga. Between these two towns is Majuba hill and a site for one of the biggest battles of the First Anglo-Boer war (they made a movie about it - see we can also boast of how we kicked the Brits butts)
Majuba Hill
The battle is thought to have been the first guerilla warfare tactic. As you know the Brits back then wore bright red with white cross bands saying "shoot me here" The Boers mostly in Khakis were able to skirmish and hide in the undergrowth and pick the Brits off at long range. We won this battle.
One of the newer power stations called Majuba, is situated here. This was a huge cluster-fuck par extraordinaire. They drilled for coal and found ample supply and we build the power stations on the coalfields. Construction was well under way when they discovered the coal seam stopped and dropped 300m. No problems, they dropped a new shaft but when they got to the coal, they could not pump out the water fast enough. This is a legacy to shit happens.
They closed the mine and now at great expense, coal is now ferried in by rail and road to make this thing work. By the time this was discovered, construction had begun on Unit 3 and Unit 1 was nearly ready for commissioning. The way contracts were awarded, commitments are made for 3 units at a time as the whole construction process takes 14-15 years from inception to commissioning the 6th unit and final hand-over.
This station is one of three that use dry cooling techniques (half of it anyway) and traditional wet cooling for the other half. I think this was a change in design as there was a huge delay for the last 3 units hence the dry cooling for the last three units.
Majuba Power Station
Ladysmith
Sadly this place now is off the beaten track as folk use a toll road via the Free State to return to Gauteng from Durban. Durban is approx a 6 hour drive from where I live. You may have noticed here we measure distance in time. It was a weird concept to get used to when I arrived here. Toll roads make it shorter but of course you pay for that privilege. KZN have the worst speed cops and you just do not speed here. If you are caught, you are arrested after a certain limit and appear the next day in court. They are zero tolerance to speeding and DUI and they still have cameras for the not so fast speeders. Speed limit is 120km/h(70mph) on most freeways and 100km/h(60mph) on the secondary roads. Suburban limits are between 40km/h to 60km/h
Mooi River(Pretty River)
My sister and BIL used to farm in this region and is in the outskirts of the Drakensberg mountain range. Here we have the highest peaks in the land.
A few of my own pics here
Sadly they discontinued one our most popular beers but here we stopped and gave the horses a drink which got us the laugh.
Howick
Each year, the Midmar Mile swimming race is held there, which organizers call "the world's largest open water swimming event". Over 20,000 entries were received for the 2009 event. There is also a falls but not that impressive
The whole area has Brit names from home towns in Scotland and England of the early Brit settlers. The topography is similar and is a beautiful province. Most folk miss this as they are in a hurry to get to the sea side. The area is very similar to the Scottish highlands and even parts I saw in Aberdeen area of Scotland. The weather here is just better.
Howick
Midmar Dam.
Each year, the Midmar Mile swimming race is held there, which organizers call "the world's largest open water swimming event". Over 20,000 entries were received for the 2009 event. There is also a falls but not that impressive
The whole area has Brit names from home towns in Scotland and England of the early Brit settlers. The topography is similar and is a beautiful province. Most folk miss this as they are in a hurry to get to the sea side. The area is very similar to the Scottish highlands and even parts I saw in Aberdeen area of Scotland. The weather here is just better.
Pietermaritzburg (wiki link)
The next town on our way to the coast is Pietermaritzburg (pics) (burg or berg means mountain BTW) and this is the capital of KZN. It is ~90km inland.
One thing one notices of KZN the closer you get to the coast, the Indian population is more visible as they are big in numbers here. (Note Indians is anyone with origins from the Indian subcontinent)
If you are white they may call you "boss" when trying to barter with you, something that has stuck in their culture here from the old days, they are not intimidated by whites, just a thing.
The architecture here is very 19th century and some lovely buildings. Pietermaritzberg is not the biggest city but the climate better than at the coast, esp. in summer.
Every year in June there is a super marathon called the comrades between Durban and Pietermaritzberg. The race is on a par with all the super marathons around the world. The whole event is televised live and it is a nice mid year time out that most folk participate in even if it is just in front of the TV. The start is in the dark and ends in the dark for the last stragglers. If you are a serious jogger, having just completed this marathon and a medal is a great achievement.
Pietermaritzberg culture here is very similar to that of my home town. Quite a few of our folk came here to study further to get degrees. In the first pic you will notice Jacaranda trees and the place from a Bulawayo perspective, very familiar.
Mahatma Gandhi
The next town on our way to the coast is Pietermaritzburg (pics) (burg or berg means mountain BTW) and this is the capital of KZN. It is ~90km inland.
One thing one notices of KZN the closer you get to the coast, the Indian population is more visible as they are big in numbers here. (Note Indians is anyone with origins from the Indian subcontinent)
If you are white they may call you "boss" when trying to barter with you, something that has stuck in their culture here from the old days, they are not intimidated by whites, just a thing.
The architecture here is very 19th century and some lovely buildings. Pietermaritzberg is not the biggest city but the climate better than at the coast, esp. in summer.
Every year in June there is a super marathon called the comrades between Durban and Pietermaritzberg. The race is on a par with all the super marathons around the world. The whole event is televised live and it is a nice mid year time out that most folk participate in even if it is just in front of the TV. The start is in the dark and ends in the dark for the last stragglers. If you are a serious jogger, having just completed this marathon and a medal is a great achievement.
Pietermaritzberg culture here is very similar to that of my home town. Quite a few of our folk came here to study further to get degrees. In the first pic you will notice Jacaranda trees and the place from a Bulawayo perspective, very familiar.
Mahatma Gandhi
Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. In May 1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move to the van compartment at the end of the train. (wiki)
Pietermaritzberg is also home to the SANBI Botanical gardens
The trip from Pietermaritzberg to Durban becomes interesting as you clearly see a change in the botany, the tropical plants become more prevalent. Banana trees are everywhere, and you pass through a number of sugar plantations.
This trip passes through an area called the valley of a thousand hills (pics)
The Zulu people and whites have generally gotten on well over the centuries as they were a warring nation and gave as good as they got. The Great Zulu War took place in this region too. Legend has it that Impes (Zulu warriors) that displayed cowardice in the face of battle were taken to a cliff, thrown off and became food tor the crocodiles down below. Going off memory here but the Brits had not encountered such resistance before esp from the natives. This was a kingdom before the whites arrived and the Matabele who we had in Rhodesia's South west regions came from here. (this was history I learned at junior school of course with Brit bias) The Zulu culture is very strong and societal norms established in kingdom times still remain in place today albeit westernised.
The Xhosa (Nelson Mandela's origins) and Zulus were arch enemies and lived next door to each other. Still to this day there is this tension between them but despite this, in the days of pre-independence, the then leader of the Kwazulu homeland Mangosuthu Buthelezi (wiki article) petitioned the white government for the release of Nelson Mandela and the incorporation of the black states to the whole of South Africa.
He was the first VP to Mandela (FW de Klerk was 2nd VP). A lot of whites
were hoping he would become president for fears of retribution from
Mandela that never transpired (xian woo scare). He acted as President 22
times in his VP tenure.
On to Durban (pics)
Durban waterfront and the harbour in the background.
This is the busiest port in SA being closest to the Gauteng province. It is geared up for the international tourist and is great all year round. You can swim in winter as the Indian Ocean is on average 18-22 Deg C. It is one of the surfing capitals and many competitions are held here bringing in surfers from all over the world. SA is opposite to the US as far as oceans go. Our east coast is the popular and warmer sea.
It is probably no different to any coastal city elsewhere and you get the aquariums, live dolphin shows, great night-life for the city orientated person. The places up and down the coast are more popular with the country folk as it is less populated. The beaches here are really nice and human friendly. There is no sudden drop off. At low tide you can walk out pretty far before you have to tread water. I have only done body and board surfing and the waves are pretty big.
Many of the buildings you see are self catering apartments and probably many are now time share.
The free way up and down the coast follows the sea side for the most part and you have a view of the ocean for most of the time. It is a toll road now and not too cheap either.
The sea is perfect for scuba diving and there are plenty of dive masters that will take you to the best dive sites. Snorkelling is also popular. A ride in a Zulu Rickshaw "taxi" is fun. These pullers navigate throughout the city. These colourful characters are famous for their giant, vibrant hats and costumes. They have a whole choreography of chants and jumps and moves so for kiddies, the experience may be terrifying.
Durban Sea World Aquarium
This is the biggest we have here. I have not seen the revamped one but my daughter has.
You can even get to swim with the fish and view a typical water world show.
Out of sight in the southern areas, are the many fuel refineries and a huge industrial area. One aspect of Durban is that salaries here are (or were) comparatively lower than inland which is ironic as in the holiday seasons, everything goes up in price and the locals get no residence discount.
Remember I said stay away in December holidays? This is why.
Over crowded beaches and no frigging way I want to be a lifeguard in
this situation. Every year we hear of black kids being abandoned/lost
and drownings. You have to swim between beacons set up by the life
guards but this is just fucking ridiculous. The only way to keep them in
the shallows is by rubber duck as in the pic.
On to Durban (pics)
This is the busiest port in SA being closest to the Gauteng province. It is geared up for the international tourist and is great all year round. You can swim in winter as the Indian Ocean is on average 18-22 Deg C. It is one of the surfing capitals and many competitions are held here bringing in surfers from all over the world. SA is opposite to the US as far as oceans go. Our east coast is the popular and warmer sea.
It is probably no different to any coastal city elsewhere and you get the aquariums, live dolphin shows, great night-life for the city orientated person. The places up and down the coast are more popular with the country folk as it is less populated. The beaches here are really nice and human friendly. There is no sudden drop off. At low tide you can walk out pretty far before you have to tread water. I have only done body and board surfing and the waves are pretty big.
Many of the buildings you see are self catering apartments and probably many are now time share.
The free way up and down the coast follows the sea side for the most part and you have a view of the ocean for most of the time. It is a toll road now and not too cheap either.
The sea is perfect for scuba diving and there are plenty of dive masters that will take you to the best dive sites. Snorkelling is also popular. A ride in a Zulu Rickshaw "taxi" is fun. These pullers navigate throughout the city. These colourful characters are famous for their giant, vibrant hats and costumes. They have a whole choreography of chants and jumps and moves so for kiddies, the experience may be terrifying.
Durban Sea World Aquarium
This is the biggest we have here. I have not seen the revamped one but my daughter has.
You can even get to swim with the fish and view a typical water world show.
Out of sight in the southern areas, are the many fuel refineries and a huge industrial area. One aspect of Durban is that salaries here are (or were) comparatively lower than inland which is ironic as in the holiday seasons, everything goes up in price and the locals get no residence discount.
Remember I said stay away in December holidays? This is why.
Most are just day
visitors from Gauteng, they really do not contribute to the tourist
economy. These are not your typical black citizen, these are rabble
rousers and fuck up everything that is orderly.
Ask any Durbanite businessman. All used to enjoy the peak in sales and the only folk making an extra buck from this lot now are the bottle stores. They do not behave this way anywhere else in SA even at the predominantly black soccer stadiums, difference is you have to pay to watch a match live. You guys have girls/teens gone wild, we have blacks gone wild here. It makes the evening news every year.
The Durbanites said December was spring tide (it is not) the Afrikaans speaking folk are affectionately referred to as rocks from the derogatory name rock-spiders and hence you just see rocks in the sea. Now it is referred to as the black tide. This is one of the reasons folk go north up the coast and south to quieter beaches and destinations and day trip into Durban for the festivities.
Easter is another time the beaches look like this. The rest of the year, like the aerial shot earlier.
Bear in mind, most black folk here generally cannot swim. Am I being racist? Who are the Olympic gold medallists in swimming? Very few black folk in that line up and certainly no black south Africans. Plus these dudes are wasted mostly and listen to no one. Perhaps it is an in your face retaliation from the apartheid days when they were not allowed into the white sanctuaries. This is 17 years since apartheid was abolished. I think the life guards (black and white) draw straws for xmas duties.
What it generally looks like and how it was (more or less in peak season)
Crowded and orderly and you see all races together and behaving this way in off season times.
Yeah it is a sore point here. The clean up of the beach after xmas and NY day is a mammoth task, they leave beer bottles all over and the beach has to cleaned up with machines to get rid of broken glass etc. (alcohol is not permitted on the beach but they don't give a shit for rules)
The beaches are probably closed the day after. Any form of making folk pay to go on the beach is seen with racist overtones of discrimination. Not really practical as you would have to fence off the beaches. Now we live with this "problem"
When I show you my pics from Ghana, you will see that they do not even have lifeguards posted and there are no blacks in the sea. On one trip I asked my host to take me to the beach and he like had this look of "WTF do you want to see there?"
When we get to the Western Cape we have the Cape Coloureds and these folk for whatever reason all tend to have their front teeth missing, almost like a right of passage to adulthood.
With that I share this SA joke (told by one black comedian)
Ask any Durbanite businessman. All used to enjoy the peak in sales and the only folk making an extra buck from this lot now are the bottle stores. They do not behave this way anywhere else in SA even at the predominantly black soccer stadiums, difference is you have to pay to watch a match live. You guys have girls/teens gone wild, we have blacks gone wild here. It makes the evening news every year.
The Durbanites said December was spring tide (it is not) the Afrikaans speaking folk are affectionately referred to as rocks from the derogatory name rock-spiders and hence you just see rocks in the sea. Now it is referred to as the black tide. This is one of the reasons folk go north up the coast and south to quieter beaches and destinations and day trip into Durban for the festivities.
Easter is another time the beaches look like this. The rest of the year, like the aerial shot earlier.
Bear in mind, most black folk here generally cannot swim. Am I being racist? Who are the Olympic gold medallists in swimming? Very few black folk in that line up and certainly no black south Africans. Plus these dudes are wasted mostly and listen to no one. Perhaps it is an in your face retaliation from the apartheid days when they were not allowed into the white sanctuaries. This is 17 years since apartheid was abolished. I think the life guards (black and white) draw straws for xmas duties.
What it generally looks like and how it was (more or less in peak season)
Yeah it is a sore point here. The clean up of the beach after xmas and NY day is a mammoth task, they leave beer bottles all over and the beach has to cleaned up with machines to get rid of broken glass etc. (alcohol is not permitted on the beach but they don't give a shit for rules)
The beaches are probably closed the day after. Any form of making folk pay to go on the beach is seen with racist overtones of discrimination. Not really practical as you would have to fence off the beaches. Now we live with this "problem"
When I show you my pics from Ghana, you will see that they do not even have lifeguards posted and there are no blacks in the sea. On one trip I asked my host to take me to the beach and he like had this look of "WTF do you want to see there?"
When we get to the Western Cape we have the Cape Coloureds and these folk for whatever reason all tend to have their front teeth missing, almost like a right of passage to adulthood.
With that I share this SA joke (told by one black comedian)
A black guy and a cape coloured guy are watching a a National Geographic documentary about great white sharks.
The coloured guys says, "Hey bro, it is not fair, everything is great white this and great white that, how about a great coloured shark?"
"Naah, bro", says the black guy, "A shark with no teeth won't work, you need a great black shark"
"Well a shark without teeth is better than a shark that cannot swim..." he replied.
Next up the tour up and down the coast.
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