Today we are in Durban and it is the last of our big ticket tours that we had bought months and months ago. All the other ones had gone to plan so let’s hope this does to. We have a 2 centre safari booked independently with 1st Zulu Safaris. The last few days we have been given countless warnings about how unsafe South Africa can be, especially Durban, so we have been very anxious about this trip. The company seems reputable and trustworthy based on their reviews.
We had an early start as we had to be up at 5.30am. It was a lovely view.
We had breakfast in the Kings Court buffet - Pam had cereal and Mark had a small cooked breakfast - then we joined the queue for immigration at 6.30 though it started at 7am for our floor. As usual, Cunard shore excursions got priority, then us.
It went well and once immigrated we got 2 stamps in our passport and a blue ticket to show at the dock that we had been immigrated. We were off the ship by 7.45 to meet guide. The guide was not at the quayside so we asked how to get to gate. We were told we had to take a taxi but actually it was a 5 mins walk so a good job we didn’t listen. Once at the gate we met a guy with the company logo on a vehicle for our tour. He said he may be our guide but was not sure as he had not been given his list and the company had a few vehicles for the passengers plus a larger one for some of the crew who were also doing an independent tour. This made us feel very comfortable.
It turned out this very happy chap was our guide and his name was Benson.
We had to wait for a German couple join us - they turned up at 8.20 when we should of left at 8 in the end Mark had to head back to the ship to get them. They were Inga and Claus from Germany and their English was not that good. We had an 8 seater van so Pam rode upfront with Benson to give her knees more room. Pam’s knees had been hurting a lot today so she was wearing an knee brace. and sat in the front with Benson.
The first park was 1hr away but we stopped at services for a toilet break and also at the roadside as the German’s wanted a picture of the view. Our first park was Natal lion Park where we were due to see Lions and Elephants.
The park had a special enclosure for the lions. It wasn’t a huge area but probably the size of our large village back home. The first lion we saw was asleep in the tree, and the others were lounging in the grass. It was a hot day.
We then drove onto the Elephants ( 2 African and 1 Indian). We were allowed out of the van and went right up to the elephants where we took it in turns to feed the elephant carrots. The elephants really enjoyed that and we got to touch them too. One elephant was 40 years old were as the other 2 were in their twenties (all male). It was wonderful and beyond words how much fun it was being frisked by an elephant for carrots.
One park down and one to go as drove onto the Tala Game Reserve.
It was amazing and we saw so much and up close too. We will now flood this blog with pics.
We also saw Wildebeast, ostriches plus hippos in the lake but the hippos were far away and we could only make out their ears. Benson took us off track to get some of the amazing pictures and close ups of the animals though we also saw a Cunard tour doing just this park and they had to keep to the main track so still had a great tour but ours was better. At one stage there were giraffes everywhere and they were even following our van. Even Benson was excited to see so many in the open. Every time we came across another 1st Zulu Safari truck in the park the drivers were chatting excitedly about the giraffes.
We stopped at the park shop for souvenirs on the way out and met the crew tour which included Charlie and Nathan from the entertainment team. To think we were suspicious about the company only 24hrs ago!
So that was officially the end of our tour. Benson asked if we needed to get back soon. We said no, so he took us to a lookout over Durban with a great view.
Then onto the football stadium that was built for the South Africa World Cup (just the outside).
Then onto a free museum about black history before apartheid of which he gave such detailed information. It seems the current civil unrest is about black people in power oppressing other black people which causes so much bitterness as it was bad enough being oppressed by the white minority but an insult by your own people. What do they say about power corrupting??
Before we returned to the ship he arranged a trip to the botanical garden where his friend Vishnu took us around for a personal tour in a golf buggy. Vishnu was amazing as he talked about the gardens and the history of some of the old and odd trees and plants that they had there. It was brilliant though our favourite was a weed that when you touched its leaves they would recoil as a defensive mechanism for about a minute. We were going around touching leaves left, right and centre like wac-a-mole.
We were back onboard by 5pm and were tired but so elated. We showered and had dinner in the buffet with Janet, who we bumped into. We ended our evening in the Queens room listening to music from the stage and screen.
Pam fell asleep in our cabin first as Mark was watching the film Fisherman’s Friends but we were both sleeping like logs after such a great day.
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