Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
If Johannesburg has business and Cape Town has culture, then Durban has the beach. Even the high-rise offices look out over the Indian Ocean and busy executives hang up their suits and ties, slip into shorts and jog along the beachfront at lunchtime. Many keep a surfboard in their cars and catch a quick wave before or after work (or both).The
Durban beachfront is a cultural experience. Here you can find families on holiday, surfers, Indian ladies elegantly walking the sand in flowing saris, beaded traditional healers collecting bottles of seawater to use as muti (medicine) and young girls strutting their stuff in the skimpiest of bikinis.
The sea really does play an important part -
there are two yacht clubs and one very big commercial harbour. The Bat Centre, Durban's most interesting cultural venue, overlooks the small boat harbour where tugs come to rest after a hard morning pushing tankers around.
Visitors can also lunch virtually in the shadow of huge container ships and cruise liners as they enter the harbour through the narrow entrance in front of the Bluff. Shopping is a special experience in Durban - the eastern influence of the enormous Indian population adds a touch of spice, literally and figuratively and you can
find a variety of eastern wares at the Victoria Market.
Traditional beadwork and
basketry are for sale at incredibly low prices on the beachfront. A tad more upmarket is the Gateway Shopping Centre, which is so much more than your average mall. It has a climbing wall and an enormous artificial standing wave - the first artificial double-point break in the world.
Of course, Durban is really about surfing and has the country's only surfing museum. Another fun thing to do is to
paddle out on a sea kayak, or even do a short, gentle white water trip on the nearby Umgeni River. Some of the hardest climbs in South Africa are at the Wave Cave at nearby Shongweni and there are some fun bolted routes in the Kloof Gorge.
The diving just south of the city is great. In winter and early spring, migratory Ragged Tooth Sharks (Carcharias tauras) are in residence at Aliwal Shoal and can be visited on a
specially organised dive. But there are also a lot of coral-encrusted rock reefs with pretty tropical fish for the less intrepid. For the serious diver, Protea Banks is a must.
