Not too much to say about Durban since like Port Elizabeth I didn’t see much of it opting to spend most of the day on yet another safari drive in the Tala Game Reserve, so just a few words by way of introduction.
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the third largest city in SA. Its Zulu name eThekwini means ”The place where the earth and the ocean meet”. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa and indeed we watched a huge car transporter ship, several storeys high but without windows and looking like a long banana, being loaded with thousands of cars for export from the automotive assembly plants in the vicinity.
Like Port Elizabeth we were told not to walk alone in the central business district although this time the shuttle buses went to similar but rather better entertainment complex to that in Port Elizabeth. Time prevented me from exploring this facility but the reports were good.
Having passed the docks and taken the flyover by the main station we were able to take a glimpse of daily life in Durban with street traders and stalls crammed on either side of the exit from the station and hundreds of white minivans and people carriers parked tightly around the entrance to the main market. There is little by way of public transport so the minivans are the main way in which people get about their daily business and shopping. It really was a scene that from our vantage point looked bedlam and not one to venture into for the faint hearted.
The majority of people in this area of Indian origin brought in to help with sugar and tea plantations, so there is a strong Hindu influence and that thirst to trade and make a living in whatever way that you can. Although the SA economy appears to be growing and healthy the underlying problem is that of low wages, a factor that I have mentioned before.
Luckily we did not have to venture into this throbbing, vibrant area of the city and were soon on our way amongst rolling hills to the Tala Game Reserve. Vast acres of battery chicken farms stretched out for as far as the eye could see along the side of the road. All spick and span but soulless places giving no hint of the hen factories they enclosed but such is the demand for chicken in SA.
The Tala Game Reserve is hidden in the Kwa-Zulu-Natal hills but not so hidden. It was rather ironic, and not a little disconcerting, to be taking photos of Hippos with one of these huge chicken farms sprawling on the opposite hill!! In the more central parts of this reserve we were spared such backdrops and indeed enjoyed great views across the indigenous acacia thornveld, open grassland and wetlands. The reserve covers some 3,000 hectares and features well over 300 species of bird as well as big game that includes black rhino, kudu, hippo, giraffe and rare sable antelope and we did see all of these on our game drive but I’m going to concentrate on two: hippo and black rhino.
It was my first sighting of hippo and as you can see even with a long lens it is only just possible to detect their nostrils sticking out of the water in the photo. Hippo are the most dangerous of the so called ‘big five’ and kill more humans annually than any other in South Africa. They are even more irascible and unpredictable than Cape Buffalo and a with there huge jaws are very capable of causing lethal damage to each other never mind a human. They can also run at 40km/hr and have poor eyesight but excellent sense of smell.
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