Durban, South Africa

We had a slightly stressful journey to get here - but as my mother-in-law says, when don't we have problems whenever we travel...we seem to always attract drama to our travel plans. On checking in at Heathrow last night the BA staff member did not want to allow Gavin to fly as he did not have a completely clear page in his passport - he does travel an awful amount so it is not surprising. She said that passport control in South Africa were insisting on one having at least one empty page in the passport. We had never heard of this ruling before so after a bit of persuading, we said we would take our chances and so she reluctantly issued Gavin with a boarding pass.

On arrival at passport control in Johannesburg, the queues were just ridiculous. When an A380 empties its passengers you would think ground staff would plan ahead and open up more than one third of their passport counters, but no....After queuing for an hour and not getting near the front of the queues we realised we had 5 minutes in which to get to our connecting domestic flight to Durban before the gates would shut. As it was now obvious we would be missing our connecting flight, and who knew when we would get another one - and the fact that my mother was waiting so desperately to see us - we did a very un-British thing of pushing all the way to the front of the queue and telling the only staff member available that we were about to miss our flight - so he hurried us to the nearest counter and we got whisked through, with no mention of there being no empty page available in Gavin's passport. The passport officer found enough space on another page in which to stamp the passport!

We arrived and checked into our hotel which is around the corner from the retirement home where my mother lives. When I was a teenager this hotel was newly built and it was ever so smart, one of the poshest hotels in Durban. Sadly it is all a bit tired today and not that great. But it has fantastic views looking out over the beaches of Durban. This is the view from our hotel room, with me hanging out of the window of the 24th floor to try and get this all in! It was the only photo I took today so it has to be my blip.

We had a quick shower and then went to see my mother. It was a very emotional afternoon, especially when the priest came to her bedside to give my mother holy communion, it was like the final rites for me. It was very good to see my mother, who is not looking at all well but at least she was brightened by our visit. We spent all day at her bedside until her dinner time. We are meeting my sister and the rest of her family for supper tonight - it will be good to see them and we have much to discuss.