Umhlanga Lighthouse

I woke up so early this morning that at 5.45am I was on the beach in front of the hotel taking photos of the sunrise (see extra) and of the famous lighthouse that dominates this area.

Umhlanga Lighthouse was completed in 1954 and took only 4 days to build. This lighthouse has never had an official keeper but the hotel we are staying in has been the tower's custodian.

After breakfast we went for a walk along the promenade to the nature reserve, then came back to the hotel as my niece was coming to visit with her children. It was the first time the boys (and girls) met the children, and at age one and nearly three they are very cute and entertaining. She went home for their nap time at about lunch time so we took a drive along the beach front area of Durban - it has deteriorated significantly since the boys last saw this area seven years ago.

We ended up at Ushaka beach as the boys wanted to swim. They cannot swim at the beautiful beaches in front of the hotel because firstly there is ecoli in the water there - due to the sewage pump breaking about a year ago and sewage being spilled into the sea, and secondly because two weeks ago a whale washed up on the beach in front of the hotel and died, and so there are bits of whale in the water and the shark nets were lifted to help the whale get back out to sea so it has been declared unsafe for swimming. Not ideal as these are really lovely beaches right here. The hotel is running a shuttle bus to beaches further north up the coast where it is safe to swim.

On the way back from the beach we popped in to my niece's house for Inca to see it as she won't get another chance, as she leaves to return to the UK tomorrow so that she can join her family on their holiday.

Tonight we had the famous and delicious curry buffet for dinner at the hotel. Durban has the largest Indian population of any city outside of India - going back 150 years when Indians came here to work on the sugar cane farms - hence the strong Indian culture that exists here. The Durban curries are famous and tonight was proof of that as the curries were outstanding.

Tomorrow Inca goes home :( but my brother arrives from Johannesburg to see us.