Well here we are in South Africa with three capitals – Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. The total population is 54 million people that speak 11 languages. And they are Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Swait, Tsinga, Southern Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Northern Sotho, and Ndebele. It is truly a country of astounding diversity. And they have a lot going for it such as the Kalahari dunes, beautiful beaches, two ocean fronts, star-studded desert skies, and lush mountains to name a few.
The country's identity is closely related to its tumultuous history with the apartheid era. If you understand that period of time, then you would appreciate how far this country has come in the last century. Reading some of the books dealing with this subject is a must before coming here.
Our first stops in South Africa will be Richards Bay and Durban. And since this country is one of the best destinations for safaris, many of the guests have pre-booked their camps through HAL or independently prior to joining the ship in January. These safari camps offer a look at the Big Five (lion, leopard, Cape buffalo, rhino and elephant) and are easily accessible – especially Kruger National Park. That will be our destination from March 22nd to the 26th. Kruger is considered Africa's greatest of the national parks where there are wilderness trails, bushwalks, mountain biking and remote 4wd trails as well as mid to luxury camps where they spoil you.
Today started off quite exciting with a 6:15am helicopter hovering over the aft deck with the drop-off of a local pilot. We did not know at the time, but it was a woman instead of a man according to Captain Frank. Not the first time either, as last year a woman pilot was air-dropped in Durban. However, if you snoozed, you would have missed it. By the time you heard the chopper, the drop was done.
The Zuiderdam pulled alongside (portside) by 7:30am at the cargo berth that had mountains of coal that was being loaded into big rigs. The dust from that coal was so thick in the air most all of the officers and staff needed to wear face masks. It has been several years since we were here, but we sure don't remember this commercial dock. We stopped here on the Prinsendam, Amsterdam and the Rotterdam, but it was at a cruise terminal. We also recall a local group of Zulu men and women dancers that had all of the guests riveted with their costumes and cultural dance. There was nothing like that today….just a series of souvenir tables set up, 29 to be exact.
We had the best seats in the house at breakfast as we watched the activity on the pier. First came the midship gangway, followed by at least 9 customs officials that boarded after 8am. A few days ago we all received the South African landing passes pre-printed with our information. Our number to do the face-to-face inspection was #10. No times were given since they did not know exactly when the officials would arrive.
The call for this inspection began after 8:30am, a ½ hour late, however the independent overlanders as well as the HAL tours went off first before any announcement was made that the ship was cleared. That seems to be the pattern now in every port. Our group was called by 9:30am and the line was short for a change. It seems that the guests complied with the orders not to crowd the area outside the upper dining room where we filed through to see the officials. The actual visit with the customs official was no more than one minute where our passports were stamped and our forms collected. On the way out of the dining room, we got brown stickers on our room keys to show we had completed the exercise. Now we will be good to go all the way to Cape Town. We went back to our room and locked our passports up in the safe. We would not need them today while in port.
Kimberly announced that the all aboard time was changed to 6:30pm, mostly for the all day tours.
There were complimentary shuttles to a shopping mall called Boardwalk Mall. We decided to stick around and work on the last of the overland packing before leaving the ship. We have taken all of the tours they offered here, so the mall would be fine for us. We did need a few things, so this was perfect. Anyway, the tours offered today were a visit to Dumazulu Cultural for $230 for 5 ¼ hours or Lake St. Lucia for $230 and 5 ¾ hours. Emdeneni wildcats was $250 for 4 ½ hours and Zulu Nyala Game Reserve was $400 for 7 ½ hours, while a visit to Hluhlawe -Umfolozi Park was $330 for 7 hours. Overlands were Mfulawoz Wilderness Private game reserve from $1900 to $2300 for 20 hours. The second one was Leopard Mountain Lodge for $2200 for 31 hours.
We left the ship around 11am and joined the shuttle for the 20 minute ride to the Boardwalk Mall. Once we got away from the coal filth, the scenery opened up into wide roads lined with densely planted trees of all kinds. We also passed at least a hundred big rigs parked in a lot, all waiting to be loaded with the coal. A railroad was there as well.
The mall had everything you might need such a pharmacies, grocery stores, boutiques and all types of services like beauty and barber salons. We found only one African souvenir shop that was incredibly small. Coffee shops, restaurants, and fast food venues were plentiful. After some necessary shopping, we searched for a suitable place for lunch. John Dorys was here, but they serve mostly fish items. Naturally we preferred pizza and just by luck, we discovered a nice full service restaurant called Panarottis Pizza and Pasta. Seated at a table for two, we ordered two Windhoek Draught beers in bottles and a Hawaiian pizza to share. Needless to say, it was very good and the beer was ice cold. We added one dessert called macadamia pizookie, which was such a cute name we had to try it. So is was macadamia cookie dough cooked in a small fry pan, with vanilla ice cream added to the top. A maraschino cherry sat on the very top. Half of the restaurant was filled with locals, but the other half filled with cruise ship passengers like us.
We left the mall around 2pm and got back to the ship 20 minutes later. There was still plenty of time to check out the African treasures on the 29 tables. One of us was looking for a pair of black and white beaded earrings in the shape of small balls. These would be a match for a necklace that we bought years ago in South Africa. The earrings that did go with the necklace were lost when our luggage went astray after last year's world cruise. No one had anything close to a match as most of the beaded earrings were dangly ones. Almost at the end of the tables, we saw one pair that was the perfect match. The vendor had just one pair and we bought them for a whopping $5 USD. It was the one and only treasure of the day besides the bag of rusks we bought, which is a type of biscotti cookie that are famous here.
By the time we got back to the room, we discovered the veranda was covered with a film of coal dust. Then we also noticed that our arms and legs were covered with it. And we only spent 15 minutes outside. Cannot imagine how the vendors looked after staying there all day until dark. The rest of the afternoon was sent as usual – internet work and report writing. And drinking several ice-cold Cokes.
Dinnertime arrived about the time the ship left the port. We are so close to Durban, 104 nautical miles, we will have no problem arriving early according to Captain Frank. He also apologized for the berth we had today, although he had no choice in the matter. He said that Richards Bay is the largest coal exported in all of Africa with over 100 million tons of it sold annually. Despite the effort to water down the roads, the dust was problematic as we found out. He promised the cleaning crew would clean it up ASAP.
With a speed of 11 knots, we will be picking up a pilot who will arrive in a boat this time at 4am. We will be docked at Nelson Mandela Cruise Terminal early, we hope. The gangway will be on A deck center of the ship and he predicted the temperature to be in the 85 to 91 degrees range. The winds will be 17 knots and the skies sunny. Sounds fine to us.
Anyway, for dinner we ordered a spring roll with a funny name, a bowl of beef bone soup with tiny noodles, and two salads. Mains were sauteed veal loin and a chicken dinner. Desserts were one scoop of pineapple sorbet and vanilla. We let our waiters know we will be gone for 5 days, and they wished us well.
No entertainment of a comedian for us tonight as we need to get in some quality sleep for a busy day tomorrow. Depending on the wifi at the camp, we will be returning with reports as soon as we can. So stay tuned……
Bill & Mary Ann
