For our one month stay, Saviah was moored in the Durban
marina. There are two yacht clubs at the
marina, the Royal Natal Yacht Club and the Point Yacht Club. Both are very welcoming to foreign cruisers
and provide free monthly memberships. We
spent quite a bit of time in both yacht clubs, which each had showers, wi-fi
and a restaurant. We were surprised at
how inexpensive the food and drinks were and ate most of our meals there since
cooking for ourselves would have cost at least as much.
One meal we really enjoyed was curry. Durban is home to the largest population of
Indians outside of India. They were
brought over by the British as indentured servants during the region's time as a
colony, to work in the sugar cane fields.
Many chose to stay after their term finished, and today the Indian
influence is a big part of the Durban culture. The curry was some of the best we’ve ever had. In fact, we ate it nearly every day and
didn’t get tired of it.
While in Durban, we didn’t venture more than a few blocks from
the marina and only did so during daylight hours. Crime is quite bad around the city, and there
seemed to be bars on all of the shop windows downtown, and most of them you had
to be buzzed in before entering. We were
warned to keep everything of value inside the boat and lock it up even though
the marina had 24 hour security. We were
given a tour of the city one afternoon by Bob Frasier, a member of the Point
Yacht Club. He drove us around downtown
and through some of the neighborhoods in the area. We drove through one of the affluent suburbs,
and it was shocking to see not just bars on the windows, but walls around
houses, some with barbed wire and electric fences and even armed guards
outside.
That was fine because there were plenty of things to keep us
busy in the marina. We had sailed almost
10,000 miles since leaving New Zealand six months earlier. Saviah was really showing some wear and
tear. Andrew had several projects on his
to-do list, including repairing the bowsprit which had some rot that needed to
be removed and epoxied before putting on a couple more coats of paint. He took advantage of the fresh water to clean
the boat and polish the stainless steel which was really starting to rust. It was also a good opportunity to catch up on
engine maintenance as well as dozens of other small projects.
It wasn’t all work though.
He had time to crew on one of the local boats during the weekly club
races. He sailed on a 40 ft Beneteau that
with was set up for racing with all carbon fiber sails and the latest high tech
gear. We haven’t done any racing, so it
was a good learning experience. It is
amazing to see how quickly sails can come up and down with 16 people on
board.
Meanwhile, Di spent time planning the next six months of our
trip. It was really nice to have wi-fi
at the yacht clubs which she used to research weather and various potential
destinations in the Caribbean and South America. Our initial plan was to travel from Cape Town
to northern Brazil, where we would spend a few months before sailing along the coast
of South America toward the Panama Canal.
This route would require us to hug the South American coast, in order to
avoid the Atlantic hurricane belt from June to November. However, after some research, we found it
would be quite expensive to visit Brazil since US citizens have extra costs for
entering the country. We also read about
big problems with crime in the anchorages and coastal cities in Brazil. Several cruising boats reported being boarded
by thieves, and others were robbed on the streets just outside of marinas.
So we decided to skip Brazil. Instead our plans shifted toward the
Caribbean to see the Windward Islands.
This would allow us to visit Barbados in April, before sailing to
Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada by June to get out of the
hurricane belt. From there, we plan to head
to the Dutch Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) in July and August. Cartagena, Colombia is the next stop on our
way to the San Blas Islands of Panama, where we hope to spend at least a
month. We would then transit the Panama
Canal in October and start making our way up the Pacific coast of Central
America as soon as the hurricane season is over in that part of the world.
With our plans more firm, the next step was to buy all
necessary charts, flags, and guidebooks.
Luckily, a fellow cruiser named Tony Herrick has a store in Durban
called Cruising Connections, where he sells all of these things. Tony was a valuable resource, as he has
extensive cruising experience and has written cruising guides covering South
Africa to the Caribbean. He also gave us
lots of tips on where to go in South Africa, as well as helping track down
other items he didn’t have on hand. He
was even willing to trade some of our South Pacific charts and guidebooks for some
covering the Atlantic.
After spending over a week in the marina, it was time to see
some of South Africa. So we rented a car
and headed out for two weeks. We planned
on spending a few days in the Blyde River Canyon area, which is 550 miles north
of Durban. In order to break up the
drive, we stopped for the evening in the town of Hluhluwe, a couple hundred
miles from Durban. After we checked in
at our lodge, we drove to nearby Lake St. Lucia and walked around looking for
wildlife.
This was our first taste of the wild animals in South Africa
and really got us excited about going on safari the following week. Within a few hours, we saw flamingos, monkeys,
warthogs and some antelope. Later that night, we took a guided hike
through the area around the lodge. It
was pitch black, except for our very dim flashlight. It was a little frightening at times, as you
can hear noises from various animals all around, and your imagination is left
to guess what is there. Our guide cautioned
us to be calm if we came upon a leopard, as one had been sighted in the area
recently. We didn’t see many animals,
other than a few dozen antelope, but it was an interesting experience walking
through the bush at night.
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| pink flamingos and a male nyala at Lake St. Lucia |
The next morning we drove seven hours to the town of
Graskop, our base for exploring the Blyde River Canyon area. The first stop was the Bourke’s Luck
Potholes, located at the confluence of the Treur and Blyde Rivers. Cylindrical potholes have formed from the
erosion caused by the swirling waters of the two rivers. We walked all around the area, over the
pedestrian bridges that span the rivers, taking pictures. Once the clouds cleared up, the colors were
stunning.
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| Bourke's Luck Potholes |
There is a lot of rainfall in the area, which kept us
indoors for more of our stay than we liked.
However, the rain throughout the canyons causes a large concentration of
waterfalls. We spent one afternoon
driving around and visiting some of these waterfalls, some of them dropping
nearly 300 ft. There were some nice hikes around as
well.
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| Bridal Veil, Graskop, Berlin, Lisbon, Mac Mac, Sabie |
We also drove what they call the Panorama Route, which was
very close to our lodge. This is a loop
that stretches along the edge of the escarpment. There are several spots with viewpoints where
you can park along the way. One was the
Three Rondavels, three hills shaped like cylindrical huts. Another was the Pinnacle, a column of rock
that rises up from the dense trees below.
Another is called God’s Window, where the cliffs plunge 2,300 ft to the
valley below. The valley is filled with
dense clouds most of the time, and it took several visits before we could
actually see the valley. There were
several hiking trails along these viewpoints as well. We were warned that there were baboons in the
area, and they could be aggressive at times.
Fortunately, we only heard some loud warning growls, but didn’t actually
encounter any while we were out of the car.
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| Three Rondavels, God's Window, and the Pinnacle |
On our last day in Blyde River Canyon, we signed up for a
cultural tour at one of the Zulu villages.
The Zulu people have been living in the region for hundreds of years and
are still the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with over ten million
people. We were in the heart of Zululand,
and we thought a cultural tour would help us learn something about the local
people.
Our guide showed us around a small traditional village and
explained the function of the different huts and about their old way of
life. After looking around the village,
there was dancing and singing. They
explained the different outfits that the women were wearing based on whether
they were single, engaged or married. It
was quite a production, especially since there were only four of us in the audience. We were a little surprised at the end when
they pulled us up and asked us to dance with them, which was a lot of fun. After the tour, we made the short drive to
Kruger National Park, where we would spend a week on safari.
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| Zulu cultural tour |