March 22, 2025

In sharp contrast to the coal dust of yesterday, we woke up to a lovely view of the Durban waterfront, cloudless skies and the beautiful new Nelson Mandela cruise terminal. In terms of our shore excursions, I had booked us to visit “Monkeyland”, a monkey sanctuary in the forest that was advertised to “foster greater understanding of monkeys”. Considering our experience in Malaysia, I reasoned that perhaps we just needed a monkey attitude adjustment.

So early in the morning, off we went on another beautiful new and spacious bus for a ride through the city and north up the coast and inland to Monkeyland. Unlike yesterday, we had a very sweet and licensed (at least she wore a uniform) tour guide who jumped right in and jabbered for the entire hour and a half it took to get there. The problem was that although her English was perfect, she spoke really fast and the inflections in her narration made her difficult to understand.

Case in point, in American English one would respond to a question where one didn’t know the answer with the response, “I don’t KNOW” with the emphasis on the know. In South African English, she would have responded “I DON’T know” with the emphasis on the don’t. Anyway, she did her best, but I think all of us Americans only caught about half of what she was saying.

What I did understand was that we were in the province of Kwa-Zulu-Natal. What was interesting is that not only is there a regular provincial governor but also a Zulu king and they rule together in a coalition. This all started in the ‘90s at the end of Apartheid. A way I thought about it was it would be as if the Governor of Arizona and the Chief of the Navajo Nation (which lies almost exclusively in Arizona) co-governed the State. She went on at length about how deeply Zulu traditions lie in the province and described some of them, with us only understanding about 50%.

Regardless, I gleaned that Durban has a population of 3,000,000 and is the 3rd largest city in South Africa, behind Johannesburg and Cape Town, but they are all very similar in size. It has the world’s largest population of Indians outside of India, which is a result of the “imported labor” that occurred in the 1800’s. The city has beautiful high rises and some well-maintained colonial buildings, yet it also has its share of run-down areas. Tod and I both remarked it reminded us of Oakland, CA. They had a stunning soccer stadium that was erected for the 2010 World Cup and a breathtaking shoreline of extensive sandy beaches. I heard someone say it was akin to the Miami of South Africa, and we concurred.

Driving through the rolling hills with the lush green fields was not unlike driving through rural England until you looked closer and saw instead of grass, the fields were all sugarcane. Sprinkled amongst them we saw lots of macadamia nut orchards. Like Richards Bay, we saw pretty little farms and then some that weren’t as well kept. On the coast side there were considerable “upscale” neighborhoods as she described them with huge houses in gated communities. However, close to Durban the neighborhoods were not unlike nice ones you’d see in the UK or Europe.

We continued for about an hour and then we turned onto a local road. This is where we saw our first “township” which is typically an underdeveloped area with minimal if any infrastructure Historically, townships were where non-whites were forced to live during the Apartheid era but now it appeared to be more like we would call an expansive homeless encampment. I’m not sure if this one was a historical one or more recent, but regardless, it was obviously where very poor people lived. It was I guess about 5,000 people living in hovels 50 some miles from Durban proper. It was our first real glimpse at abject poverty as opposed to just observing the typical “haves and have nots” that you would find in any city in the US.

After a bumpy ride on the backroads, we arrived at the entrance to Monkeyland. At this point we were ushered off our bus and directed to 9 passenger “safari vehicles” that were 4 x 4’s and road so high off the ground we had to board via a platform. Off we went about 2 miles up to the sanctuary that was high in the forest.

There we met our local guide who gave us tons of monkey information before we entered the fenced area for our one hour walk. He explained the difference between “old world monkeys” and “new world monkeys” of which I had zero knowledge, and the discovered the difference is huge. This sanctuary is dedicated to the rescue of any kind of monkey or lemur. They come from primarily zoos or people who have tried to raise them and as a result they were imprinted and could not be released into the wild. He emphasized that this was NOT a breeding program and that they are therefore all neutered. Phew! He referred to the sanctuary as basically a retirement home for the primates.

Our walk turned into more of a forest climb for about a mile, carefully dodging roots, mud and giant hanging vines ala Tarzan. This was clearly not the jungles one normally thinks about in Africa, but a picturesque woodland. It gave us a new and different perspective on the African landscape that we had yet to experience. Having the monkeys and lemurs climbing above us with their background noises really gave us the African experience we had always hoped to encounter. It also unquestionably renewed our positive attitude about monkeys.

Back on the bus we retraced our route back and we were on the ocean side on the return. We passed through the resort town of Ballito known for its large pods of bottlenose dolphins and an excellent surf spot. The next 50 or so km we passed miles and miles of gorgeous beaches.

We got back to the ship around 2PM and since sail away wasn’t until 10:30PM that night, we decided to venture out into the community to pick up a few items. There were numerous warnings from the ship crew about how “dangerous” it was to go into Durban, but no one ever defined what the “danger” was. For heaven’s sake, we have both worked dozens of years in downtown Seattle, then Frankfurt and most recently Oakland and consequently have become reasonably savvy to urban threats. In addition, the people in Durban aren’t packing guns. We had no jewelry with us save my gold wedding band and small pearl stud earrings. If anyone mugged us, they wouldn’t get much. So, I looked up a shopping center that was about 6 miles away, showed it to the tour guide and asked if we’d be OK taking an Uber there and back. She said we’d be absolutely fine, so I hailed a ride to take us to the Southway Shopping Mall where they had a large “Checkers” grocery store and a pharmacy along with many other shops. Our driver came within 2 minutes and my only boo boo was to indicate our pickup point to be on the opposite side of the street from where we were standing because I was thinking in terms of right-hand drive. Hopping in a nice Kia, off we swept down the freeway to our destination. We did see dozens of cranes at the port and an enormous sugar processing and storage area. Shortly we arrived at the mall and easily found everything we needed including an ATM we felt secure in using. I was afraid we would completely stick out like the tourists we were but all the 3 stores we went to asked us for our number for their frequent buyer programs at check out. They all looked completely aghast when we said that no, we weren’t members. The last lady at the pharmacy offered to sign us up then and there but we had to tell her that we were just visitors. She asked from where, and we gave our stock answer that everyone understands (San Franciso) and by the look on her face we could tell they don’t get a lot of tourists at that mall.

Catching the ride back was as easy as coming and we collapsed on our bed about 4PM to rest up before dinner. We’re certainly looking forward to a couple of restful sea days before we arrive in Cape Town on the 25th for our next adventures!

Our guide explaining about the area. The electric wires are actually to keep other animals out because the monkeys and lemurs don’t want to leave. They get 2 feedings a day of fruit, nuts and chicken that is left on platforms for them to help themselves so they have no motivation to get out.

These howler monkeys scared the heck out of us. They say they can be heard for over a mile and I don’t doubt it!

Durban, South Africa

Sea Day #5 Indian Ocean

Richards Bay, South Africa