The sunrise over Durban harbour.

Just a small portion of very busy Durban Harbour.

The Rotterdam was glimpsed between two palm trees as out tour bus cruised the waterfront roadway . . .

. . . we also saw the Vasco da Gama clock commemorating the 400th anniversary of his landing . . .

. . . the Dick King statue commemorating his bravery in 1842 . . .

. . . and the Jubilee statue of Queen Victoria.


The Department of Tax Collection . . .

. . . sports this vulture over the main entrance!

This is just one of many Art Deco buildings in downtown Durban.

Does not this look a great deal like Central California in the springtime?

And with ranch-style homes from the same place?

The view of the “Valley of a Thousand Hills” from the amphitheatre at the cultural park was spectacular!

This little girl who tagged along through the performance stole the show!

A Zulu maiden—so identified by haircut and beadwork (she would also have been bare breasted) . . .

. . . boy meets girl . . .

. . . boy consults Sangoma . . .

. . . who casts the bones and predicts good fortune.

This is part of the marriage dance; the girl in the middle is the bride—her hat tells the world that she is married.

A Zulu warrior.

Squeek house calls on a Zulu warrior . . .

. . . while Moss discusses the world with another Zulu warrior.

The crocodiles crawl out of their pond at the smell of meat.

As the ranger throws chunks over the fence, the crocs struggle to snap it up.

One crocodile crawls back to the pond with a chunk in his jaws—is that a smile?

Back in Durban—or is it Beverly Hills?

This “Walk” sign got Squeek’s attention; it says “Wait for the Green Man.”

A traditional African method of carriage is seen even in the bustle of this very westernized city.

Reboarding the Rotterdam after an interesting day in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal.

The pilot is hoisted off the Rotterdam’s deck as we depart this harbour.

Dining Room Assistant Manager Komang shares his dance skills in an historic Indonesian dance

Our own Dining Room Steward Oscar (at right) was one of a trio who sang Indonesian songs—he is a very talented man!

Presti (left), our own Assistant Dining Room Manager, led a group in an Indonesian “line dance” (I cannot think what else to call it).

The cap of the Indonesian Crew Show came when Squeekie was called up to the stage to join the anklung orchestra in a number—she has experience on this instrument!


Eighty-ninth Day (Saturday, April 18, 2009)-- Durban was our next port of call, and because it was just 87 nautical miles away from Richards Bay it was a short journey. We awoke the next morning (at 6:30am) to find Rotterdam docked, cleared through immigration, and that some guests already were departing on their overland journeys into the interior of South Africa. Our activity for this day was to visit a Zulu cultural centre, the PheZulu Safari Park, which is located in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. We checked off of the ship and boarded a bus which took us through Durban, a very big city with an interesting history. . . .

A little history, which you have come to expect whether you are interested or not-- There is no written history of the region before 1497, when Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, on the way to his first visit to India, landed along this coast on Christmas Day after weathering a rough passage around the Cape. He named this area “Natal” (Christmas in Portuguese), and the name stuck on European maps, but no colony was established here for many years. (The colourful “Vasco da Gama Clock” which we passed on our tour bus commemorates the 400th anniversary of this event; it was a gift to the people of Durban from Portugal in 1897.) The city of Durban, which lies at the very southern edge of what once was the homeland-empire of the Zulu people, was founded in 1835 by a group of British colonists who had traveled over 700 miles northeast from the Cape Colony. The new town was named to honour Sir Benjamin d’Urban, who then was the Governor of Cape Colony. The Boers (Afrikaaner Dutch), who had migrated away from the Cape into the interior of southern Africa after the British took control there, were VERY unhappy with this new colony port town and tried to push it out, without success. In 1842, at a moment when Boer “commandos” (they invented that word to refer to irregular—not formally trained—military forces) had surrounded the city and were on the verge of capturing it, a teenaged boy by the name of Dick King rode on horseback through the Boer lines and over 1,000 kilometers down to the Cape to get help from a British warship—a rescue ride in which he was successful. (We passed a statue in his memory as we drove through Durban.)

Durban is the busiest port in South Africa (as was readily apparent to us as we passed through it) and the busiest container port in the Southern Hemisphere. It was famous as a stop for ship repairs in its early days because it is located at the southern edge of a weather phenomenon which can cause very rough seas, as we experienced as Rotterdam came down from Maputo, and then increased in importance upon the building of railways and the emergence of the industrial and mining trade from Johannesburg in the interior. The finest natural harbour on the southeast African coast south of Maputo (Richards Bay had to be dredged out to hold modern shipping), Durban boomed in the late twentieth century because Maputo was closed due to civil war. With the ending of that war and the reopening of Maputo in the early 1990s, there emerged an intense rivalry between the two cities for shipping trade into the interior of southern Africa. Durban also has a long history of tourism due to its subtropical climate and fine beaches. The city is also famed for its large number of Art Deco buildings.

OK, back to my day-- We drove through Durban, getting a quick look at the city’s famed architecture and some of the monuments. We drove along the city’s famous and architecturally rich waterfront road, and were treated to a glimpse of the mighty Rotterdam between two palm trees as we sped along the street. Among the structures we passed were the Vasco da Gama clock and the Dick King statue in the waterfront park, and a statue of (a young) Queen Victoria commemorating her jubilee in 1897. Then we turned into the heard of the city’s old downtown district, and went past the infamous Department of Tax Collection, a building built in the early twentieth century; ironically (and rather amazingly), it has a statue of a VULTURE over the front entrance! There also were art deco buildings and a lot of traffic, the most I had seen (albeit very orderly) since Mumbai.

Our bus drove us northerly out of Durban and into countryside which looked very much likes parts of Central California. After driving for nearly an hour on a succession of roads which grew progressively narrower, through a number of towns and communities with English names, past homes which frequently looked as though they had been transplanted from California, and into the valley of the Mgeni River, we arrived in the “Valley of a Thousand Hills.” Perched near the top of one of these myriad of hills was the “PheZulu Safari Park,” which featured Zulu cultural displays and performances, and a collection of animals. This was not a game reserve, none of the “big five” game animals were there, but we saw crocodiles in large number. (They apparently also had ostriches and snakes, but I did not see those.)

We toured the huts to see the traditional lifestyles of the Zulu people, although I suspect that not many of them still live that way. Unlike Kenya, where traditional lifestyles appear to remain strong among rural people, I saw no evidence of that in Natal, where even the performers at the cultural park were obviously westernized. Still, it was an interesting exposure to the former way of life of the Zulus, although there was no direct reference to the vicious style of warfare in which they once engaged between themselves and with all other peoples, African or European. . . .

Then we were invited to sit in a small open theatre construction high on the hillside overlooking the Valley of a Thousand Hills. From this comfortable vantage we were treated to a view which indeed did induce homesickness in me, for it looked as though I was looking out over the hills in San Luis Obispo County or even Hollister Ranch in California. WOW!!! The Zulu performers—members of the Gasa clan and many of them students at a local university—put on a show of music and dance which told of the courtship, betrothal, and marriage traditions of the Zulus; cooking and beer making by Zulu women; and the throwing of the bones by the sangoma (witch doctor). The program concluded with other rhythmic dances and drumming, including a spear-waving exercise—this once had been done prior to battle. Our attention was also drawn by a small girl, just a toddler still in diapers, who wandered around the edge of the stage, I assume following her mommy.

We then went over to a pit filled with crocodiles to view their feeding. It was a dynamic event, where these animals (which do not too often move rapidly) hurried about and climbed over one another to gain access to the meat thrown their way. As soon as they could smell the meat they reacted, climbing out of the pond to the wall’s edge. As the handler threw large chunks over the fence the crocs climbed and struggled to snap it up. It was an interesting thing to watch! We did not go to look at the other animals, however.

Before leaving the park were given a very fine British tea with scones, and then were given time in their curio shop, which had some very nice items of handwork. There was jewelry made from beadwork, but Squeekie instead selected a piece made from pieces of ostrich eggshell. We also bought a Zulu mask for Leslee.

Then it was the drive back to Durban—long but very pretty and quite interesting to one who had not seen this before. We saw more historic buildings before returning to Rotterdam. We departed from Durban before dinner, and Squeek and I watched from the Crow’s Nest as the helicopter lifted the (very brave) harbour pilot up from Rotterdam’s forward deck. Then we dined with Don and Iris and Bob and Phyllis at their table, sharing stories about our recent adventures in Africa.

Tonight was the Indonesian Crew Show in the Queen’s Lounge, and I departed from dinner early to get the best possible seats so that Squeekie and I could photograph our hard working and very talented Indonesian crew members. Oscar, our steward, was the director of the show and one of a trio who sang Indonesian songs. Komang, one of the Assistant Dining Room Managers, performed a dance wearing an Indonesian costume and narrated the Ramayana Dance which included references to this World Cruise and some inside jokes making for a very funny presentation. Presti, our Assistant Dining Room Manager, was the dance coordinator and also performed in two of the dances. When the time came to perform music on the anklung, a traditional Indonesian instrument made from bamboo, the Anklung Orchestra played Spanish Eyes. Squeekie, who REALLY wanted to do this, was selected to go up on stage and play a second song with the group. She proudly went up on stage, wearing her batik shirt from Bali, and played like the pro she is!

We have one more “at sea” day and then we will arrive in Cape Town, and event I am looking forward to as I have long wished to go there. Good night all!