Arrived in the city of Durban!

We'll squeeze two days into one post here, simply because most of it was taken up with driving! We left Wild Lubanzi backpackers lodge on the morning of the 4th, and arrived in the tropical port city of Durban on the afternoon of the 5th.

Here's how it all happened...

We woke up to sunshine for the first time in quite a few days.

A beautiful morning.

We would have preferred to stay and do another hike on such a nice day. But if we were to stay on schedule for our upcoming ten day visit to the country of Lesotho, then we had to move on. Besides, it was still over 500 kms (300 miles) to the city of Durban and that would be too long of a day for us. 

So off we went. We paid our bill at Wild Lubanzi. Two nights including one dinner, a few bar drinks, and shuttle transportation to the car park came to R970 ($102). Not bad, but we have a hard time recommending the place despite the great scenery. Wouldn't take much effort on their part to change our opinion, but the animal issues we mentioned in previous posts take away from all the positives.

It was all paved roads from the car park, and in good condition.

Lots of people carry stuff on their heads. 

A new school.

Lots of nice scenery along the way.

The city of Mthatha

Storm clouds in the north.

At one point in the drive, we were only about 80 kms (50 miles) from the Lesotho border. In the pic above, these are the foothills to the mountains of Lesotho. We saw a storm coming, but our route turned us south and we avoided it.

Lots of pine trees.

Not the greatest picture, but we went through one section where there were miles upon miles of pine tree plantations and logging and sawmill operations. Didn't think we would see this in South Africa. 

We stopped for the night just outside of Port Edward. We had no plans on where to stay, and found an empty room at backpacker/B&B type of place called Kuboboyi River Lodge. A little pricey for what we got, at R450 ($47.25) for the night. We had gone there because we saw advertised R300 ($31.50) for a double room but they said they had plumbing problems in those rooms. We took the more expensive one because we simply didn't feel like wasting time driving around. Only an average place, and they charge extra for wi-fi. We have our own cellular internet, so we didn't need to pay. Oh, and despite having cooking facilities for backpackers, they also have a strange policy where you have to pay R30 ($3.15) per person extra if you want to bring your own beer and wine. I balked at that, and she didn't charge us. Yes, we drank our own beer and wine!

Slept fine though, and set off for Durban the next morning.

Good roads in South Africa. 

Made it into Durban just before noon on Friday the 5th and drove straight to the Happy Hippo. Can't wait to tell you about this place right in the center of Durban and a short walk to the beach. Durban is an interesting city, and we now wish we had more time here! How is it that a four month stay in Southern Africa isn't enough??!!

Durban is a busy bustling place!

Durban, South Africa. A mixture of Las Vegas, Miami, and New Delhi!

On the 4th, we drove from (A) Wild Lubanzi to (B) Port Edward, a distance of 400 kms (248 miles).

On the 5th, we drove from (B) Port Edward to (C) Durban, a distance of 165 kms (103 miles).