Wild surf

Today we went on a tour of the Moses Mabhida Stadium. This is the premier football stadium in Durban that was built for the 2010 Football World Cup, and it was named after a political figure who had nothing to do with sport who was the leader of the South African Communist Party and not many people have even heard of before, including our tour guide.


It was a Segway tour, and the first part of the tour was to learn how to drive a Segway and to hear the safety instructions. It was not as easy as it seems! It took me a while to get used to the Segway, as you propel it by pushing your hips forward and you stop by leaning back. I missed the first bit of the tour as I was so worried about falling off this ruddy thing that I could not concentrate on the information our tour guide was giving us! Adam summarised it for me - the stadium holds 65 000 people, although during the World Cup they added extra seating to accommodate 85 000 people, today it is a bit of a white elephant and is barely used, and more revenue is derived from tours and walks over the top of the arch than the events held there - although tonight it was the venue of the Bafana vs Cameroon football match. We wanted to walk over the arch but the lift had malfunctioned and it was too windy to walk up the steps. (See extra photos for images of the stadium)

After touring the stadium we went on Segway to the beachfront. There is a wonderful wide paved promenade stretching 8 km along the beachfront and we enjoyed going along this by Segway and viewing all the art deco style apartments and hotels there. It was very windy and at times I had to really lean in to get a speed up on the Segway.

We then fetched my mum and had lunch at a cafe before returning with her to the B&B where we relaxed and had coffee. Later Gavin and I walked down to the beach to watch the kite surfers battling in the strong winds. I liked this view of the wind across the waves and Durban in the distance on the horizon.