Durban, South Africa

This was a new port for us and is the largest port in South Africa.

We took the shuttle bus to Marineland, which is a shopping mall and a marine entertainment venue. It was also where we could catch a public bus. We bought day passes on the bus. We already had South African Rands, which we'd pre-bought from our bank before we left home.

An MSC ship was in the prime docking spot, which was within easy walking distance of Marineland.

 
A nearby skyscraper and our friendly bus driver.

The bus drove by the new Nelson Mandela cruise terminal. There was no terminal where we were docked.

We got off the bus at a beach. We liked the Pirates Cove Life Saving Club's mural there.

 
From animal tracks to the people, we thought this was an interesting beach.

While there was a lot of litter on the beach, there were also cleaning crews.

 
This old guy showed us what he'd found so far on the beach that day and he said that he expected to be finding some really good stuff by the end of the day.

This was one of several sand sculpturers on the beach this day.

We stopped to talk with this family, who'd laid out all the favorite foods and drinks of their late father.

Very touching...

Yet another cleaning crew.

 
We worked our way back to the bus stop at the far end of the beach, which was in front of this hotel.

Quite a few well-dressed women were leaving the hotel and loading themselves and their gear in minibuses. But these minibuses were blocking the bus stop so the bus security guy made them move beyond the bus stop. There were security monitors at all the bus stops, so that was a good feature.

From the bus: decorative pyramids keep traffic off the center strips.

The turn around stop for this bus was at this park, which we might have been interested in, but it looked a bit sad and our goal was the central market.

 
As is often the case, there were vendors on the street surrounding the central market.

 
There was all types of stuff in the market itself from herbs to beaded jewelry and more.

Across the street was a brick church.

Goat heads in the meat market, which was a separate building.

This extension of the market was in the shelter of a mosque across a different street at the back of the central market.

Looking back at that mosque. We had walked along that whole alcove.

 
It was an interesting people day.

We wondered where this guy was going with his cartloads of trash.

He was headed to this truck where people were paid for trash by weight.

 
The sprawling street market continued across the street onto the walkways to the train station a block away.

 
We took this photo through the fence from the market area and then one of the women showed us the gate to enter this Muslim cemetery.

We entered the cemetery and there was a Christian cemetery right next door, which was not nearly as well tended as the Muslim one. There was a small gathering of Hadeda Ibises (Bostrychia hagedash) on the Christian side.

 
We found a downed tree in the shade and had our lunch there.

The Muslim graves were tended like raised garden beds. We'd not noticed this in other cemeteries, but of course, that's why we travel to experience new things. We threaded our way back through the various market spaces and back out to the "front" of the Victoria Street Market where the bus had dropped us off hours before.

 
The bus let us off at the beach bus stop and the same friendly security guard was there. Our bus back to Marineland would be a while so we hung out with the guard and a group of his friends in the shade up the hill from the bus stop. From the bus: a monument in the center of a rotary.

From the bus...

From the bus...

Back at Marineland, it was an African theme.

 
In the shopping mall with the snake tile mosaics and out front, while we waited for the next shuttle bus. A woman was taking a photo of her older children. Dean offered to take a photo of all of them with her phone and then asked if he could take a shot with his camera. How lovely.

A sepia-toned sunset as we sailed away from Durban. It had been an interesting people-filled travel day.

Our next port was to be East London, but we'd been warned by the captain that conditions might not allow us into this port.