Durban
I am now in Durban which has the largest Indian population outside of India.  It is more mixed than Cape Town but still a large modern city. Printed some of the photos I took for the family in Xhosa to mail to them while I am here (cheaper and quicker than waiting till I get back to the States) and tried “Bunny Chow”, a local curry dish spooned into a half a loaf of bread.  Did some shopping at the local flea market up the street.  I decided to throw in 4 kg of laundry at the automat as everything needs washing at this point.   Had a nice dinner at the local Indian Restaurant of butter chicken with various condiments.

If I ever return to Africa, I would start in Durban and explore the region around here. The scenery is magnificent and Durban looks more integrated and diverse than Cape Town.  It was interesting to start there just to see the change over the distance of 800 miles, but for real tourism -- I think this is the place to begin.  The hostels are getting more fun and funky.  We stopped in one called Jungle Monkey in Port St. John to pick up some kids and it was a hoot.  There's a lot of weed grown in the area and the hippies that didn't want any part of the apartheid wars had gone to Transkei and never left.

Had a half a day before catching the flight to Jo'Burg so I visited the Umgeni River Bird Park which was very nice. Sort of like the "Parrot Jungle" in Miami before it went commercial.

Bee and Bloom

Hornbill

Hornbill nest. Hornbills mate for life and the female and her chicks are entirely dependent on the male to feed them as she holes herself up in a tree.

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