Quick update on Sheila’s bite. So yesterday we went to the pharmacy in the Gateway to get some advice as it was taking its time to subside. Pharmacist was great but when he gave her the medication it was put in a locked cage – not in case it escaped – but to prevent medicines being stolen or consumed before payment.

                 This is known as a Pill Jail

So today we had our first day in three weeks actually lying in the sun. 30°, a blue sky, plenty of suntan lotion and a crossword book.  At this hotel they are very keen to give you small bottles of water but we tend to overdose on Coke Zero. Not sure who is going to bring them to us when we get home……….

We even went for a dip to cool down but then returned to the comfort of our sunbeds and a large shady sun umbrella.

We had a view of our favourite lighthouse and 18 ships, like the one below, evenly spaced across the horizon and waiting to get into Durban Harbour.

Durban Harbour is Africa’s busiest cargo and container hub.  Numerous vessels include Cruise ships. They are very careful how they control the ships and they patiently wait up to 6 days to be called in.  The container terminal in the port handles 4 million containers annually.

Later in the day we walked down to Whalebone Pier just along the beach from the hotel. The whalebone structure won the SA national award for outstanding engineering.  From the pier you can see the rocks that Umhlanga is named for and the reason the iconic lighthouse was built there.

So this afternoon we started the packing. We leave from Durban (Safair) to Cape Town at lunchtime then from Cape Town to Heathrow arriving home at 5 am (Safari Drive time,!!). When we flew Safair from Port Elizabeth we were very impressed as everyone was told to stay in their seats when we landed and not get their luggage down from the overhead lockers until their row was called.  It was brilliant and a lesson Easyjet could do with learning. No pushing, shoving or mad rush to get off. So civilised!!

We had a lovely Italian dinner – (must be running out of activities if we’re talking about our dinner), and had a couple of delicious cocktails – a Mango Pina Colada and a Passion Fruit Mojito.  Back to the hotel, it’s still 26° and muggy, guess it’ll feel a bit different when we get home. 

Now it’s time to finish the packing and why on earth won’t what fitted in on the way out not fit in for the journey home???