October 16, 2008 - My Durban Tour

Yesterday I hooked up with a local tour guide for tour of the City of Durban.
His name is Ian Stuart. He is a local Durbanite man, born in Cape Town. He is retired from working all over the world, including a number of years in the US (Chicago, New York, Florida and Phoenix - which he loved) and actually has dual US/So. Africa citizen. He is white and laughs at the fact that he is really an African American. After retiring he decided to do limited work as a local tour guide to stay busy. He had so much information to share that it was very fun to drive around with him in his little Mercedes (all the cars here are little) and listen to his stories.

We went to the harbor first. The tide was out and walking along the wharf he pointed the little, tiny crabs. I couldn't believe it. There were thousands of them!! They were so small I thought they were bubbles on the beach from the low tide! The harbor is very large. There is a natural little bay for the private yachts and then the other side of the harbor is for the large ships. I think I already mentioned that this port is the largest in Africa.

From the wharf he pointed out 3 large warehouses that had prominent pitched roofs. One of them had the word "Sugar" on it. Inside is one huge pile of sugar. Sugar is one of the largest exports in So. Africa. Apparently we will see many sugar cane fields in our outings next weekend.

Next, we discussed auto manufacturing. Durban has a huge Toyota manufacturing complex. A number of years ago a man by the name of Albert Wessell brought over here a few of the little Toyotal open bed trucks (they call them "buckies" here). They sold so well he started bringing some other models and eventually he had the rights to make the vehicles here. In fact, he was so successful, that currently Durban manufactures all the Toyotas sold in South Africa and surrounding regions. I'm not sure exactly how large an export market they have but the do export to Australia, which is funny because Japan is closer to Australia. In addition to Toyota, Mercedes has a plant here which builds all the C class Mercedes for the world. The impressive thing is that nothing is imported into Durban for building the cars....at least for Toyota....everything is made here. Engines, glass, paint, etc. I think that is pretty impressive for the area.

Durban is very green. It is also hilly. There aren't really any mountains that are in the city, but there are hills, bluffs, etc. going down to the coast line. There are some beautiful trees called Jacaranda (jack-a-rhonda) trees that have the most beautiful blue/purple flowers. They are at the end of the blooming period and starting to fall to the ground leaving a beautiful blanket of these blossoms. I have taken a picture and I am hoping that it will capture the color. The problem with photos, I have found, is that the small part you can see in the photo does not ever communicate the fullness of the experience, and I am not the best photographer so . . .
There is another tree which I am sure most of you have seen pictures of, called a flat top tree because it grows with a very flat top. They are beautiful and large.

I saw my first ant hill. As you will recall, Africa is famous for the very large anthills these industrious ants build. The one I saw was not so big, but it was impressive nonetheless because it was deeper than what I could see on top of the ground. The ants were white and looked more like moving larva than enything else.

We travelled up the coast to see some of the newer developments in Durban. So far, I have only been exposed to a few neighborhoods close to the downtown area. It was interesting to see how much it looked just like a California community. Sadly the beach areas have been expoited with large apartment buildings and hotels to the point that you can't see the ocean from the street. In fact, the buildings are so close together that it is hard to find the few walking accesses to the beach. And they are few. Interestingly, there are further developments going in down at the South Coast area where they have decided to plan a little better. What has happened at the areas that I visited with all the tall buildings is that by 1pm the buildings block the sun! Who wants to be at the beach with no sun. . . well I might like that since I just like looking at the waves and listening to the surf, but apparently the people who come to the beach for holiday don't like it so much.

Ian also took me to the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere. It is called Gateway Mall and it is huge! (Expensive too) Complete with 20 theatres, one IMAX, a skate park and a bungee jump....what a way to shop!!

I saw the estate house where the President of South Africa stays when he visits Durban. It is up on a hill with a beautiful view of the valley and the beach. In that community, called Morningside, with many beautiful gated estate homes and luxury apartments they do not allow telephone polls or cell towers, etc. so they have disguised the tower to look just like a huge palm tree. It was very bizarre but I must admit that if Ian had not pointed it out to me that I would not have noticed.

We went up on another bluff above the city to have a look. From up there you can look down and see several green golf courses (which are all flat....), fotball (soccer) fields, rugby stadiums, cricket stadium, horse race track and stables, and various other kinds of sports.
There is one whole area that has accomodations for one sport after another. there is a new stadium that is being built for the world soccer games which will be held here in Durban in 2010.
This is a big deal here. It was also interesting to see the road system. Trains used to be the way to get around in South Africa, but a new freeway system has been constructed by removing the middle rail lines and inserting the freeway inbetween. There are trains still running on both sides of the freeway in some places. Overall the road system is quite good but there is one big problem.

The Problem: In Durban (I'm not sure if it is the same in other cities in S. Africa) the local government leaders can decide to change the names of the streets whenever they want. Currently there is another change being made that has happened just within the last 3 months. What is hilarious is that you can go to an intersection that has a signpost (not all of them do, so you have a hard time trying to find a street)and find the post has 4-5 signs on it for the street names. Four of the five will have a red line painted through the name. This is actually very helpful because you may be looking at a map that has a name that was replaced quite a while ago. But all the brochures, etc. are way too expensive to reprint (just think of a business letter head, cards, etc.) so they keep all the signs so you can find your way. It is so funny.....the current changes are for names of people that no one on the street knows. One of the major streets is Dr. D.J. Xuma but I have yet to meet anyone who know him so we don't know why he has a major street named for him now.