Every Sunday morning, when I am in Durban, I drive to the beachfront. It only takes 14 minutes, provided most of the lights are green. I park next to the iconic Joe Cool’s bar and nightclub, and try to walk for 10 kilometres. The route is to the Point, which is at the harbour mouth. It is only an 8 km round trip, even if I walk down all the piers. I add on a bit by walking past the car towards the Suncoast Casino. This casino, a monument to Mammon and lost hopes, is a blot on the landscape. It was designed as a bit of Las Vegas on the beach. The less said about that the better.
Tag Archives: Durban
Theatre and Short Breaks
This somewhat meandering blog began in Paternoster, a small former fishing village on the Cape West Coast. My contribution to grandparenting is limited at this stage, so I decided to head for South Africa for a spell. As people who read this regularly know, I avoid Durban from January to April/May; it is just too hot and humid, so this was the last chance to visit for a while.
Durban winter is the best time of the year
I have just had 10 glorious weeks in Durban. I travelled over in mid-May and came back to the UK at the end of July. I barely left Durban during this period. The only trip from the city was to Hilton, just outside Pietermaritzburg for lunch with people who attended Waterford. Most were a year or two younger than me, and I had not seen some for more than 50 years. It affirmed the value of the Waterford education and values for all of us.
Warm by day and cool by night
The weather in Durban has been glorious, warm days (22-24°C) with cool nights. One bonus of this is there are few mosquitoes, which is unusual. What normally happens is I am just dropping off to sleep when there is a piercing hum in my ear. A mosquito, and it can’t be ignored. The little bastards are persistent, and action has to be taken. I have spray and mat to deter them. I had a friend and former colleague stay with me for just under a week. He is a good friend whom I have known for over 40 years. We played touch rugby with academics, trade unionists and people who wanted a good run around, once a week for many years. He and I did a couple of road trips which appear in blog archives (here and here).
Cool Nights and Warm Days
May is one of the best months to be in Durban. The day-time temperature is in the low to mid-twenties, it is cool enough at night for a light blanket, and the days are gloriously sunny. Having said that, I recently started my day in a short sleeved light shirt and shorts, by lunchtime I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and trousers and wondering if a jersey might be necessary! Fortunately, the day warmed up.
Spring Rains
This is going to be a rather bitty blog post. Last week Durban had a few days of very welcome heavy rain. The weather fronts move up from the Cape, bringing rain, and the temperature falls. This last front was extreme. The main roads from KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng were closed due to heavy snow. It must have been desperate for the many people who had to spend the night in their vehicles, and there were several deaths from hypothermia. We are just not geared up for this type of weather.
Swallows and Sunbirds
Last month I reported my Waterford challenge – walking 280 kilometres in a month – was successfully completed. This month I can confirm that I raised the target amount. When I signed up, in 2023, my goal was to raise R67,000, R1,000 for every year I had been alive. Unfortunately, I had some health issues,1 so only embarked on the challenge on 16th June 2024. Given the delay and the passing of another birthday, I felt morally obliged to raise at least R68,000.
Birds and Walks in Durban
It is relatively unusual for there to be rain in winter in Durban. Weeks have passed with a succession of sunny days. Walking, except at dawn, means wearing a hat. It was quite a surprise when, this week, the first cloudy day in ages ended with a short but heavy rain shower in the evening. I could hear it coming across the city and, at first, was unsure what it was, it had been so long.
Durban Winters are Magnificent
As I have mentioned before, Durban in winter can be magical. The days are sunny and warm, the evenings cool, and there is no humidity to contend with. To get here I travelled from Norwich to Amsterdam on 12th June. Getting up at 4:30 am to catch the six o’clock flight to Amsterdam remains a pain, but I had time to visit the lounge before boarding the Johannesburg flight. I was lucky enough to have three seats to myself on the long-haul segment.
The Score: Durban 27°, Norwich 5°
It was something of a shock to travel from Durban to Norwich in early December 2023. Firstly, the difference in temperature was considerable; secondly, although there was a fair amount of rain in Durban, there was also sunshine. For the first week in Norwich, we had virtually no sun, just unremitting grey days; and thirdly and finally, I had been away for a long time, nearly six months. Regular readers of the blog know the reasons for my extended stay, and I won’t go into them again.
Alan Whiteside 