It takes a while to get into port this morning as there is a lot of maritime traffic.  Durban is one of the largest – if not the largest – commercial ports in S. Africa and the busy-ness here is on full display today with freighters and tankers coming and going.  We aren’t concerned as we have a ship’s tour to the market and gardens – so we know we will be going whenever we go.

As it turns out, we leave right on time for our tour, meeting our wonderful sweet and funny and super-fast talking guide, Judith, who launches into a long involved explanation of Durban, Zulu culture, spending too much on the holidays, needing to work now.  She was a non-stop chatter box, pointing out sights here and there – like the street with all hair salons, every single storefront contains a salon.  One of the biggest businesses here, she claims, because women like to change their hair and pretty themselves up in hopes of getting a man.  Or keeping one happy.  Because she says, “women expire in 6 or 7 years!”  What?  OMG, too funny.  She says that she envies the tourists she meets who have been in a relationship for 10 or 20 or 30 years because here, a man would have 4 or 5 wives by that point!  We are in stitches!

We pass by some nice murals, the commercial and ferry port entrance, stopping by the John Ross house with his statue out front listening to Judith explain that at the age of 15, he walked from Port Natal to Delagoa Bay and back, over 600 miles,, to procure and bring back medical supplies needed by the people of Natal.  He later became a trusted advisor of King Shaka.

Arriving at the Victoria Street Market, the oldest market in the city, we are given a spice demonstration and talk – including a flyer with great recipes – then have an hour and a half to wander through the stalls of trinkets and souvenirs.  After purchasing our Braai spices (cheap!), we wander. And wander. And wander.  It is a nice market, tons of souvenirs, none of which we want. Although I did break one of my cool bead bracelets that I bought in Cape Town a while back – so I did want a replacement.  We visited 10 stores full of beads and other wood trinkets and carvings, and no one had this particular style of bracelet. Really odd.  Then, we hit this one store where the owner knew exactly what I was looking for, pulled out a massive bag full of bracelets – probably 200 or 300 in there – and proceeds to start pulling them out willy nilly to show us.  She was the best.  Also, after all this time with the bracelets that I wear a lot, she shows me a couple different ways to wear the things that change the looks completely.  Wow!  That alone was worth the visit.  Of course she tries to sell us a million of the bracelets at a really high price, and of course we negotiate, still probably paying too much – but I found an exact match for my broken one, and additional ones to bring home to boot.

Finally back in the bus, we head over to the Botanical garden – Africa’s oldest surviving garden – passing interesting architecture and lots and lots of street vendors everywhere.

At the gardens we have our refreshments, a glass of really good sparkling wine, then spend an hour or so wandering through the very pretty gardens that contain all sorts of different plants and species.  Including lots of Egyptian Geese and elegant Herons. 

It is a nice little walk, in the growing heat, through a palm grove, a fern grotto, sunken gardens, a lotus pond and more.

There are good descriptive placards as well, one explaining how the Acacia tree came to be known as the “Fever Tree” – early settlers who caught malaria thought the tree gave them the disease, when actually it was the mosquitoes that populated the swampy area that was the tree’s habitat.  Another explaining the Cannonball tree that we had seen previously on Reunion Island – Hindus consider the tree scared as the petals of the flowers resemble the sacred snake Naga.  A couple of sculptures – one depicting the annual winter sardine migration along the coast, another the changes on earth.     

Another nice visit, maybe a little too long, but nice nonetheless.

On the way back to the ship we stop in the “wealthy” (read: white) section of town for an overlook that gives us a long view across the city below us.  And that’s the tour.

Nice, half day, back at the ship around 12:30.  We had planned to take the shuttle over to the mall for lunch – just a little snack since it will be so late – and for a grocery store for gifts, but unfortunately we just miss a shuttle, the next one won’t be here for 20 minutes.  It is getting on toward 1pm and we don’t want to wait that long, so instead we head across the street to Robsons Brewery.  Perfect!  Great beer – I mean, come on, how can you not like someplace with a beer named Miami Weiss?  Great pub grub food – I had a Pint of Prawns – really good fried prawns with an excellent garlicky mayo; Ed had a fabulous deep fried Hake, and get a load of the names of the other dishes!  I so wanted the Your Buns are No.1 burger, but didn’t want that much food in preparation of our Prime C dinner tonight. Love the vibe of this place – Ed was especially tickled by the urinal – cut out of a keg!  And our sweet server, Gladys, and her hat.  We now need to find one for Ed!

Back aboard, we have an epiphany – Discoveries has a great menu tonight, and we really should eat there instead of Prime C.  So, up I go to talk to Jeannie, who performs her miracle and finds us a reservation for Prime C tomorrow night – yes!  Proscuitto wrapped Hake for dinner tonight!

After the gym, we decide to just stay up on deck 10, positioning ourselves at a great 2-top that starts out in the shade, to wait the hour and a half for the Zulu dancer show.  We don’t care! We’re just reading and hanging out watching White Night Preparations and keeping ourselves entertained.  Otherwise we’d be on the balcony – so why not?  Plus, we are also in the prime spot to watch all the performers come by as they go to the Drawing room to get changed into their costumes.  Fun. (The only negative? We are right over the grills – where they use wood that we think are old paint brushes as kindling starter – then proceed to torch the charcoal to death to light it, meaning we get the smoke right up to us and our clothes will forever more smell like White Night BBQ!  The price you pay for good seats…..)

The Zulu show is excellent.  Those guys are just amazing, so acrobatic and the way they flip and then flop on the deck?  That’s gotta hurt, but apparently they’ve got a way to do it without major damage! And the one female artist has the voice of an angel – so great.  We have a wonderful time sitting up top watching – and swatting the stupid woman away who is standing behind our table and picks up Ed’s beer bottle to move out of the way for a photo.  What?  Lady!  Honestly – you don’t EVER touch anyone else’s drink that way.  People.

Anyhow, we take way too many pictures and way too many videos – the best of which are below.

• All in sync dancing
• Acrobatics in sync and tower
• Acrobatics
• Little guy acrobatics
• My favorite, the train

Dinner in Discoveries is fantastic – an amazing appetizer of fried portobello mushrooms, totally different and excellent, then prosciutto wrapped hake with lobster medallions for Ed, Crispy Asian chicken for me.  And, it was far busier down there than we ever expected, BTW.  Tons of people there eating and not upstairs in the heat and the wind with the buffet.

We make it out of the dining room in time for the crew parade, retiring to the Living Room for one drink, then the balcony for the rest of the evening, listening to the music from up above and enjoying our solitary peacefulness.