I Hear Laughter in the Rain

This past weekend we visited Durban. Durban is located on the east coast in the province of KwaZulu Natal. Known for its sub-tropical climate and lovely beaches, Durban is also the largest and busiest shipping terminal on the continent. 

The advice we received from locals was not to visit Cape Town in the winter as it's cold and rainy. You will remember that we did visit Cape Town back in May but took a day trip to the 
Cape of Good Hope leaving the cold gale force winds behind in Cape Town. Durban, however is supposed to be hot and sunny pretty much all year long.

Two weeks ago we looked at the Durban weather forecast and noticed that among the plethora of sunny and mid 70 degree temperature days ahead were a few days of cooler weather and rain. Those were the very days we would be visiting. We laughed at the audacity of weather forecasters thinking they could predict weather two weeks in advance. 

Shortly after we arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon it began to rain heavily and soon after that the power went out due to load shedding. By evening the power was back on but when we went to dinner it pouring so hard that we had to take Uber instead of walking even though our hotel was just a few blocks away.

Despite the rain, Durban was lovely. It is much greener than Joburg with lots of sugar cane fields and rolling hills. Of course the main reason to visit is to see the Indian Ocean.  My photography teacher said you can take the best photos when the light is low due to clouds or time of day. So there's that consolation.

Our hotel must have had a lot of cancellations because instead of getting a regular room when we checked in, we ended up getting a fancy apartment. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and deck with a pool and braai. Unfortunately we didn't have a car to go and buy any meat to braai. We also didn't have any friends to invite to stay in our extra bedroom but it was still very lovely to have so much space. 

 

We made the most of our weekend by visiting the spa and watching the rugby game in the bar. During the game there were loads of South African fans who came out of the wood work to watch. It seemed like the hotel was pretty empty except for during the game the bar got so crowded that the staff had to bring in banquet chairs for people to sit. Sadly SA lost to New Zealand. We had little insight into what was going on but cheered when everyone else did in order to get into the spirit.

At the hotel we spotted a monkey in a tree. He looked very innocent munching leaves but we knew at any time he could come down and try to steal something.

Sunday it cleared up right before we left for the airport. It was at this point that Mr. Deep put his toe into the Indian Ocean for the very first time. You will remember he wasn't with us when we visited Cape L'Agulhas.  

Hahahaha