Are we in Belfast?
12 November 2015
It’s a bit weird visiting Durban City Hall as it is almost an exact copy of Belfast City Hall … except that the Durban version is surrounded by palm trees (you don’t get those in Belfast) and Durban is sandstone whereas Belfast is white Portland stone, and the Belfast interior is much more lavish with extensive marble and stained glass windows.
Apart from the City Hall we wanted to have a look at this major city – it is quite busy but a bit tatty. There is an excellent history museum in the Old Courthouse and the Natural Science museum in the City Hall is good too as you can then see some detail re some of the animals and birds we saw in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi.
Durban is somewhat edgier than Richards Bay with poverty in greater evidence, including white people on the edge of vagrancy and eking a living as car guards. Some years ago the council introduced parking meters for on-street parking, thinking this would get rid of car guards (cannot understand why they thought this), but as people are ever adaptive it did not work. So, you spot a parking space and out of nowhere a car guard appears waving his/her hands to direct you in. There is then a discussion about how long you will be there, say three hours, and you hand over Rand 20 (less than £1) and the car guard will spot traffic wardens and feed the meter as appropriate. Having taken a photograph of our car guard off we went. On return there were two meter tickets under the windscreen wiper amounting to Rand 19. Up runs the car guard and we give him another Rand 5. Everyone is happy.
We moved to another spot for lunch and same procedure, but when we reached the chosen restaurant by the marina, it had stopped trading. So, change of plan and we will head for Berea where there are lots of restaurants – back to the car. No meter tickets, no car guard, no Rand 20 – we can hardly get upset given the amount. We did have excellent pizza at Spigo d’Oro on Florida Road though.
We had a drive along the extensive beachfront and then back to Richards Bay.
Our summary on Durban – interesting if you are from Belfast, informative museums and a lovely renovated Playhouse Theatre and you don’t know if you don’t go.