Durban – The End of a Series of Adventures

Okay so I may have to somwewhat of a little fib to myself, the last time….this was the worst hangover…..I have ever ever had, swinging gently in my hammock, we were summonsed……time to go, TJ looked as bad as I felt, I’d already drank one 1 litre bottle of water over the course of the morning….now that wasn’t settling to well, the door rolled open, the usual clamber over the selection of empty bottles, and bump later and away we went….woke up from my hang over esq sleep….my side was killing….ah thats what I must have done getting in to the Kia this morning……anyway.

One of the easiest drives we had done…straight down a motor way, thank god for that…could not have handled a bump fest again over gravel and rocky roads, high in the hills, being chucked out of my seat and almost hitting the ceiling.

As we approached Durban the blueness of the sky begain to be split by the skyscrapers as the peiced the sky all around a busy metropolis, so different from the other bits of south africa we had seen, the sky scrapers parted and were met by the blueness of the indian ocean as it crashed the sandy shores (come on I am getting good at this stuff, or is that just me thinking that?) surfers, surfers with kites, bodyboards and the like utilising the sea…..Oh at this point I got a little giddy, in a semi ill sort of way, surfing was just about to be done, that is I will do it in Australia.

We jumped out walked along the beach, grabbed some food….probably not the best choice for me, some mexican stuff…. a combination of fresh (ish) sea air (had the odd taste of car exhust fumes) and stodgey food seemed to shift the grey clouds of my, ever present hangover or so I thought, we got back in the Kia and the same temporary wind that blew the clouds away in the first place changed direction….close my eyes for a short while, window open……about 30mins drive away we went to a shopping centre, well come on I was with a group of women! But this had a slight advantage, there was a wave machine that you could surf on……oh it looked fun…i’ll post the picture soon.

To my last two nights accommodation we drove, a lovely house, in the middle of a leafy suburb of Durban, we I was welcomed by two of the nicest people I have ever met, Chris and Jill the landlords, a lavish looking place (in comparision to the hostels I’d stayed at) you walk in to a eating area, knifes and folks placed to attention, turned left up the stairs to a beautiful room, with an amazing view overlooking the sea, clean towels lay on the bed on top of a beautiful clean crisp cream sheet, a strange device stood mounted on the wall, a box like thing….I had not seen one of them for a while…a TV, I could put the TV on and watch it in my bed……and then a gift from him upstairs…air con!!!!

The cleanliness of the room presented me with a problem…here was me, with a dirty white shirt, a un shaved mucky face (although I didn’t realise this till I actually got to the B&B) a pair of damp boots and a backpack covered in dust, backpack found lodgings in the corner of the room, boots situated on the window sill, in attempt to dry them once and for all…what else could I do…stripped down and finally sat on a nice bed, a welcome relief for a probably battered and bruised rear! Then a shower, clean towels a cup of tea and a watch of the music channel, with the coolness of the aircon I drifted off to sleep once more!!

The next couple of days saw the canadians and I, swimming, eating and chilling….but the end was soon up on us and the airport to my next stage of my adventure loomed large just around the corner.

After a tearful goodbye a coffee and something to eat later, I boarded my flight to Sydney.