Durban has a long tradition as a port city. The Port of Durban is one of the few natural harbors between Port Elizabeth and Maputo, and is located at the beginning of a particular weather phenomenon which can cause extremely violent seas. This made Durban a busy port of call for ship repairs when the port first opened in the 1840's. Now the busiest port in South Africa, it is also the busiest container port in the Southern Hemisphere. The city of Durban is also famous as a major tourism center due to the city's warm climate and beautiful beaches.
We had a HAL tour to Tala Game Reserve which left at 8:30. It was just under an hour to get to the reserve. It was very commercial, with a formal entrance gate and facilities to serve coffee to 3 bus loads of tourists. They also had a nice gift shop. We were put on large vehicles, the seats were 4 across, 4 or 5 rows, set on top of a small truck. The area was pretty much open fields with some ponds and a few trees. It felt like someone had a farm and decided to turn it into a game park. We were able to see the animals up close though. They had no predator animals...no cats....only various antelope, rhino, hippos and giraffe. We did see several eland and a pair of sable antelope that we hadn't seen before. The rhino were just laying around on a hillside, easy to see. I loved seeing a genii of giraffe on a grassy hill, we were able to take some great pictures. The hippo were hard to spot, as usual. I do have a picture of a baby on it's mother's back. At least I can see the baby and the mother's head. They stay under water during the day. It was an OK tour, but somewhat of a let down after our wonderful game drives in Kenya and Richard's Bay.
Back at the ship by 1, we ate lunch when visited the vendors on the pier. We had already bought almost everything we needed, so didn't buy much. I did find some great fabric with animals and animal print on it. Looking forward to a sea day to rest!
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