Today we were in the city of Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. The first impression of the city from the ship as we docked was that it looked like a modern prosperous place. It is a large port, the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa, with a newish Cruise Ship Terminal named after Nelson Mandela, with a lot of grandious buildings and many highrise buildings in the city. However once on our bus for the journey to Tala Game Reserve we saw a bit more of the underside of the city such as large numbers of makeshift and delapidated vendor stalls lining most streets and almost every open space, including a bridge to nowwhere.

On the drive out of Durban we were on a very elaborate freeway system where there was considerable upgrade work being undertaken and the freeway passed through affluent looking residential areas. Once into the country side the land had a fertile look and there was widespread farming, cattle, sugar cane, corn. But there were also villages with run down looking dwellings and limited facilities, for example no formal streets just wheel marks in the dirt.

The Tala Game Reserve we visited today had a different feel, more like a farm, than a wilderness area. As you can see from the photos below we had a good day spotting many different animals. Probably the highlight of the day were the giraffes which posed very cooperatively for us photographers. Wildebeest were new today and there was quite a herd of them, and more rhinos (with their horns trimmed to protect them from poachers). We also got a distant glimpse of a couple of Hippos. A very successful day of animal spotting.

On the way back to the ship the bus drove past one of the city beaches this was a pretty upmarket area with a number of sgnificant hotels just across the beach front road. After the beach we drove past a place called uShaka Marine World, it is an Aquarium and Water Park and is apparently world famous. The establishment is named after the legendary 19th-century Zulu King Shaka kaSenzangakhona