"A marvelous way to begin to experience... " a Durban Travel Page by Bunsch

When my son decided to spend his junior year abroad, he selected the University of KZN's Durban campus and moved into a dormitory in February 2002. In no time, he was picking up bits of Ndebele, Zulu, Shangaans --and he'd been christened "Umsawawa" which apparently comes pretty close to "Southgate" in some lexicon! Six months later, I finally decided it was time to visit Africa so I could see how he was faring. I called the University and was referred to Barbara and Tom Becker's Hunter's Green B&B, less than half a mile from the campus. Barbara was a former administrator at the school, and ran her B&B like a well-oiled machine. Tom was the chief cook and produced astonishing spreads every morning. He liked people with hearty appetites and I was pleased to oblige! He also provided chauffeur and tour guide services for our first several days in town. Oh, and we had laundry done daily -- the first time my shorts had ever been ironed, I think -- and all for R200 single. I had two splendid weeks wtih them and stayed in touch thereafter; unfortunately, Tom died in December 2006 and the B&B closed up shop as a result. But what a way to be introduced to Africa!

There is so much to do in Durbs, as the locals call it, that it was hard to limit ourselves to just one or two sights each day -- but since I often went to classes with my son during the morning or early afternoon, that's really all we had time to do. The beaches are magnificent, and the Golden Mile is something everyone should see. But one of my favorite places was the Amanzimtoti Bird Sanctuary, which not only has a spectacular assortment of birds, but also allows many of them to fly free or in very spacious enclosures. This got to be problematic when a crested crane managed to fly over its fence, and was blocking the pathway -- no one knew what to do to help it get back inside, and the crane was clearly unhappy to be sharing such a narrow space with a lot of humans. There was a very enjoyable show in which various raptors demonstrated their skills. In short, a great way to spend an afternoon

The gently rolling hills north of Durban feature modest game parks, quasi-English villages, and a recreated Zulu village called Shakaland where a movie and television series were shot. This is clearly a tourist mecca, but that shouldn't strike it from your "to do" list. Amongst other things, it was one of the few places where it was possible to see a lot of native crafts being carved, beaded, etc. There is also a scale model of a Zulu village which really helped me to "see" what we were walking through during the performances and which was very helpful in explaining to folks back home just how the culture operated. Also, we had quite a creditable lunch in beautiful surroundings. What's not to like?