Durban is the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal, a major port, and is only 87 nautical miles south of Richard’s Bay. (All the buses and tour guides we had in Richard’s Bay came from Durban and were on hand for our tours in Durban.)
The Port of Durban
It is also a major tourist city with nice beaches, although we were warned about muggers and pickpockets and warned away from certain beaches and shopping centers. The Mozambique current brings warm water down the coast resulting in the sub-tropic climate of KwaZulu-Natal as opposed to the rest of South Africa. Durban, like Mombasa, is also a great place to pickup overnight excursion to the many game parks and reserves.
We had an excursion to the Valley of a Thousand hills, an area in Zulu country where there is the huge valley of the Mngeni River that contains lots of hills—some say a thousand!
Valley of a Thousand Hills from Phezulu
It is almost like the Grand Canyon in the US except it is a verdant landscape and inhabited by many more people. There are a number of “cultural villages” recreating elements of Zulu life with cultural shows, traditional style round huts, artifacts, some flora and fauna, and cafes and gift shops.
On the way out of town to Phezulu (the cultural village for our tour), our (white) guide recounted the history of the Zulu King Shaka, sometimes called the “Black Napoleon” because he rather ruthlessly united the tribes in the area. He was also able to defeat the British for a while. Phezulu is towards the top of the valley and has a great view of many of the hills. The show was structured along a storyline of a young couple meeting, courting and marrying.
Older Zulu Woman
Young Zulu's "Courting"
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Telling the Young Couple’s Fortune
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Zulu Dance
The fauna included snakes and crocodiles. After the show and a walk through the “village” they had us over to watch the crock feeding.
Crocodile with a Side of Beef
Then we got fed tea and scones (or for Hanson hard cider and scones).
To and from Phezulu we passed by the Victoria St. Market and saw a number of interesting colonial-era buildings.
Victoria St. Market
Several Colonial-Era Buildings
We got back to the ship for a late lunch and just had a leisurely afternoon aboard ship and looking at the vendor’s goods.
A Metal Artist
A Hat Artist