Durban, South Africa

New-to-us port #32.

Had I remembered that today is Easter Sunday, I probably would have booked a mini safari or a tour that would have taken us out of the city. But I didn’t.

No matter. We had a nice time with Christo, the guide we hired through the Get Your Guide app. But we had to jiggle the places on our itinerary because many of them were closed today.

Our day started with an announcement by CD Ray. That’s not unusual as he’s on the P/A as soon as the ship is cleared to let us know that we can disembark Insignia. This time, however, he was passing along a message from the Durban Port Authority … warning us that it was dangerous to walk outside the fenced-in port area … encouraging everyone to be extra vigilant if they were heading off on their own. I had already read warnings about this on social media … hence the guided city tour.

Christo picked us up from the gate at 9:00a and we headed into Durban. On Easter Sunday — in a city where 80% of the population is Christian — it was no surprise that the city was pretty much shuttered. No traffic to speak of. At least not at that early hour.

After a quick stop at the Town Hall Square, we headed to the covered market. Most of the stores were closed, but several had opened up in anticipation of the ship’s tours stopping to spend money. In fact, Mui had just completed our gift purchase when the buses arrived.

Next up was the herb market … just around the corner. While there are sacks of every imaginable herb you might be looking for, this is also the animal market. That aspect, on a regular business day, might not have been a pleasant experience. As it is, we saw a skinned crocodile and a snake. Christo did say that all parts of the animal are used … so there is that.

The Botanic Gardens, which was our next stop, turned out to be the highlight of our day. Established in 1849, it is the oldest surviving botanic garden on the African continent. It is primarily an arboretum with a collection of woody plants from Africa, India and the Americas. Christo had made arrangements for us to take a golf cart tour with Vishnu, who works at the gardens. Truly, this was the best way to experience the park since without him we would have missed the most interesting trees.

One particularly fascinating tree was the woodii, which is a palm-like tree that is one of the rarest in the world. It has separate and female plants, but the female one has never been discovered. The tree is extinct in the wild for that reason and any specimens are clones of the male tree.

From the Botanic Gardens, we did a quick drive around the Moses Mabhida Stadium. It was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The funicular that visitors could take to the top of the arch has apparently been out of service since 2018, reducing the tourism value of the stadium.

Since the museum on the itinerary was closed today, Christo took us to uMhlanga, a beach resort just north of Durban. Mui and I went for a short walk here to see the Whale-Bone Pier, which was built to re-route stormwater flow to feed the otherwise stagnant tide pools. The curved fiberglass “bones” are designed to be reminiscent of the rib bones of a whale.

We wrapped up our tour with a wander at the uShaka Marine World and then Christo dropped us off at the cruise terminal.

We have a late departure from Durban tonight. A good time to relax and rest up before our 6:00a safari departure tomorrow.Read more