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KZN - Durban |
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On KwaZulu-Natal's East Coast. Overview South Africa's third city and biggest seaport sprawls around what is arguably the finest natural harbour in the entire southern hemisphere, and the only major inlet along an eastern shoreline that is otherwise remarkably free of indentations. Durban began life a little less than 200 years ago as a minor trading post; today the metropolitan area (the Durban/Pinetown conurbation) covers more than 400 square kilometres (250 square miles) of subtropical coastal-belt terrain north to the Umgeni River and inland, across a ridge called the Berea, westward to a plateau that rises 500 metres above sea level. On this higher, cooler ground are some of the city's more fashionable suburban satellites, notable among them Hillcrest, Westville and Kloof. Durban draws much of its prosperity from its grand harbour and the industries and services it has spawned, but is best known to South Africans as a holiday playground, a balmy paradise for sunbathers, surfers and those who want to play, eat, drink and be merry in the most relaxing of environments. It is also the country's 'conference capital', a favoured gathering place for international business and public-affairs delegates. The great Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama was the first European to catch sight of the land that the city now covers: he did so on Christmas Day 1497, and named it Rio de Natal in honour of Christ's birth. But it was to be more than 300 years before white men made any serious attempt to colonise what had for long been Nguni territory and which, by the early 1800s, had become an offshoot of Shaka Zulu's new and fast-growing kingdom. In 1824 two small groups of men, led by Lieutenant Francis Farewell and his deputy, the enterprising Henry Fynn, came ashore at the bay to set up what they believed would be a profitable trade in ivory and skins. Within weeks they managed to extract a generous (though rather vague) land grant from Shaka. A decade later the settlers - still only about 30 strong - proclaimed a township, which they named in honour of Sir Benjamin D'Urban, then governor of the Cape Colony. In the early 1840s the settlement was occupied by the eastern vanguard of the Voortrekkers (Boers), who incorporated it into their republic of Natalia. The British, however, held out at Congella (now a city suburb) and in due course they forced the trekkers to withdraw. It was during this confrontation that a young settler, Dick King, known as 'South Africa's Paul Revere', set out on his famous ride to Grahamstown to seek reinforcements. He was accompanied for much of the way by his Zulu assistant Ndongeni, and managed to complete the journey - 960 kilometres through hostile countryside - in just 10 days. Durban began to develop in earnest around the mid-19th century. In 1845 Natal was annexed to the Cape, and a steady stream of immigrants began to make the three-month mail-package voyage from Britain. By 1854 the town's population stood at just over 1200, and on 15 May that year it was formally declared a 'borough' (one of the few such titles granted in South Africa). William Holden, a minister of religion who returned to the settlement after a five-year absence, described its progress: 'How changed the scene', he wrote. 'Instead of a solitary house here and there, hid in thick bush, dwellings now thickly stud the ground in every direction. There are now streets well filled up, and many buildings erected, both substantial and handsome.' A railway, the country's first, was completed in 1860, and by the end of the century, after decades of costly dredging to remove the bay's notorious sandbar, the harbour was opened to ocean-going vessels. With these improvements came rapid economic expansion. The plantations and orchards of the countryside yielded sugar and fruit (the stimulus for large-scale processing enterprises); early local activities included soap manufacturing, textiles, printing and paper board; later came ship building and oil refining. And of course there were always the marine service industries - bunkering and chandling, warehousing and forwarding. Today Durban is a major industrial and commercial centre, and one of the world's busier trade outlets. Durban ranks among the fastest growing of the southern hemisphere's urban centres, its population expanding with the migration of mainly poor folk from the rural areas into the suburban sprawls - KwaMashu, Ntujuma, Umlazi, Embumbala and others - that have made their appearance on the northern and western fringes of the city. Nearly all belong to the Zulu ethnic group, or nation - a people with a relatively short but proud history, and with a cultural heritage that invites exploration. They form the majority in the metropolitan area (and, of course, in the wider KwaZulu-Natal region). Their integration into the urban mainstream - the provision of houses, schools, clinics and other services and, above all, the creation of jobs - is the principal priority of the city authorities. The city was founded and developed by settlers from the British Isles, taking on a rather 'English' mantle that clothed the social and economic geography of the place until quite recent times. Natal generally and its main town in particular were known as hotbeds of royalism, the colonial middle-class (with a bit of upper-class thrown in) mentality a powerful force in political sentiment and in determining the lifestyles of the more privileged residents. Much of that has gone; Durban, for all its gleaming buildings, is now a very African city. But traces of the past linger - in yacht club and polo field, in the members' boxes at the cricket ground and rugby field, in private get-togethers in the leafy suburbs. Durban is also home to a large Indian community, many of them descendants of indentured (contract) labourers brought in during the decades after 1860 to work the spacious and expanding sugarcane plantations of the Natal colony's coastal belt. A large number of these workers stayed on as 'free Indians' after completing their contracts and were, in due course, followed by ordinary immigrants and visitors from the subcontinent. Most prominent among the latter was Mohandas (later Mahatma) Gandhi, who campaigned long and hard for Indian rights before returning to his native land in 1914 - and leading it, eventually, to full independence. Most of the original Indian settlers were Hindus and Moslems from the Tamil-speaking Madras area, but the colony also attracted Gujarati traders from Bombay (Mumbai) who established thriving businesses, which in turn provoked the hostility of their white competitors and a whole arsenal of restrictive apartheid-type laws. Those days have now gone, of course, but Indian society, generally a prosperous one, has remained separate and unified in a broad sense, held together by a common cultural heritage and by kutum, the disciplined, patriarchal extended family. Hot and humid for much of the year, and generally very generous to holiday makers. Hottest and stickiest months, usually, are January and February. The average daily high-summer temperature hovers around the 27 degree Centigrade mark (80 degree Fahrenheit); the average winter daily maximum temperature isn't all that much lower ( 22 and 72 degrees respectively). The city receives more than 1000 millimetres of rain in most years, much of it in summertime during regular, torrential tropical downpours. Beware the risk of sunburn, even sunstroke; wear a barrier cream and a wide-brimmed hat (rather than the fashionable baseball cap). Travel Arrival by air: Durban International Airport is about 15 kilometres to the south of city centre and handles regional and domestic as well as international traffic. Banking, currency and car-hire services are available at the airport; a shuttle bus provides 24-hour service between airport, the central area and the beachfront hotels. The city terminal is on the corner of Smith and Aliwal streets. Arrival by road: National highways are in good condition, linking Durban with all major Southern African centres. The N2 leads south and then east through the Eastern Cape Province and Garden Route to Cape Town; the N3 takes you north past the grand Drakensberg range to Johannesburg and Pretoria. Intercity buses (Greyhound, Translux) end their runs at the terminal next to the new Durban railway station. Plenty of other, smaller, operators, provide regional (and indeed national) services. Arrival by rail: Intercity passenger services connect Durban's new railway station (just north of city centre) with Johannesburg and Cape Town. Car Hire: Leading international car-rental companies are represented at the airport and in the central area. A number of local firms offer the competitive facilities. Consult the Yellow Pages for details. City Travel: The metropolitan area is served by an adequate bus service. Minibus ('black') taxis get you around faster but they tend to be crowded and they have a poor reputation when it comes to both safety and courtesy. They can be flagged down at any point along their routes (which are not clearly marked). Smaller vehicles known as tuk-tuks (three-wheelers) and mosey-cabs (jeeps) ply the central area. Exploring Durban City Centre Natural Science Museum Located in the City Hall, the museum provides an insight into South Africa's splendid natural heritage - animals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects. There is also a geological section. Eye-catching exhibits include a reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus Rex, most fearsome of the dinosaurs; the skeleton of the now-extinct dodo bird (native to the Indian Ocean Islands), and an Egyptian mummy. There are also sections devoted to geology and to a computer centre titled KwaZuzulwazi, or 'place of discovery'. Art Gallery City Hall; on view are examples of South African and applied art and a fine selection of KwaZulu-Natal crafts (basketry, beadwork); also some impressive European pieces, among them paintings by Utrillo, Constable, Corot and Lely; sculptures by Rodin and Dalau, and Lalique glassware. African Art Centre In the Guildhall arcade; a self-help project that functions both as an art gallery and a shop. On display: pottery, fabrics, sculptures, basketry, beadwork, rugs (from the noted Rourkes Drift Centre), woodwork, graphics. Local History Museum In the Old Court House, Aliwal Street. Here you'll find much of the colonial past (including costumes, settler lifestyles and a 'fancy repository' of jewellery, porcelain and so forth). Part of the complex but geographically separate are the Kwa Muhle Museum, which focuses on 20th century Durban and its multi-cultural people; the Old House Museum, a beautifully restored Victorian residence; and the Maritime Museum (see further on). Old Fort and Warrior's Gate Off Old Fort Road; a complex given over largely to militaria. The Fort, a National Monument, played a prominent part in the confrontation between British colonial troops and the Voortrekkers in the 1840s. Worth exploring is the Garden of Remembrance and the original powder-store, now a charming little chapel. The Garden of Remembrance's cross is said to 'weep' each year on 15 July, the anniversary of the World War 1 battle for Delville Wood in France, when some 3 150 men of the 9th battalion of the British 9th division stormed and held the wood against fearsome odds; just 755 survived unwounded. The Warrior Gate section features medals, uniforms, regalia and other relics of the killing fields. Killie Campbell Collection Muckleneuk, the graceful home of early sugar-baron Marshall Campbell (he also introduced the ricksha to Durban), houses the Msashu Museum of ethnology and its superb array of Zulu art and craft together with paintings, by the celebrated Barbara Tyrell, of Zulu people in their traditional costumes and regalia. The Killie Campbell Africana library is also a component. The Playhouse A five-auditorium complex that provides the focus of Durban's performing arts - orchestral music, opera, ballet, conventional and experimental drama plus rather more intimate supper-theatre shows and art and other exhibitions. The complex once comprised two of the grandest cinemas of the picture-palace era, the Playhouse (Tudor-style interior) and the Colosseum (mock-Moorish). Harbour and Waterfront The virtually landlocked bay that serves as Durban Harbour, the world's ninth biggest, is a vast, functional concourse of quays, warehouses, cranes, dockside trains, grain elevators, pre-cooling stores, silos, graving and floating docks. As well as trawlers, tugs, coastal craft and ships from a score and more of Nations. Harbour cruises are laid on; the sugar industry welcomes visitors to its giant Mayden Wharf. The bay's southern side is bounded by a lofty, 8-kilometre long wooded headland known as The Bluff, its northern waters by a narrower, lower-lying spit called The Point, which is the focus for a development programme that will eventually rival Cape Town's V&A Waterfront in both scope and imagination. Victoria Embankment runs along the harbour's north-western shore and beckons the bayside stroller with its waterfront views, historic buildings and other features of interest. Among these are the colonial-style Old Supreme Court, the Durban Club, and the John Ross statue, which commemorates the brave 15-year old boy who walked 700 kilometres north to Delagoa Bay (now Maputo) to fetch medical supplies for Durban's infant settler community. Another statue honours Dick King (see above). There's also the Vasco da Gama clock, an intricate cast-iron, dome-shaped gazebo and a fine example of Victorian baroque craftsmanship. Maritime Museum Not the usual hall of exhibits but, rather, a collection of historic vessels, including a classic steam tug, the last of its kind ever built; an early pilot boat; and the minesweeper SAS Durban. There's also Sea View Cottage (a re-created settler home), a gift shop, and a 'Pirate Experience' for children. Sugar On View Maydon Wharf, at the harbour's western end, hosts three huge (300-metre long) silos which hold up to half a million tons of sugar. The plant, which has won international industrial design awards, is highly mechanised, the raw sugar pouring down the elevators in sudden and dramatic avalanches that pile up in great dunes of sweetness and are then siphoned off (at about 1 000 tons an hour) through an intricate system of hoppers, weighing machines and conveyor belts for loading onto waiting ships. It's a sight certainly worth seeing. The Golden Mile Durban's long and lovely beachfront is somewhat misnamed since it stretches more than 6 kilometres, from the Point (harbour) area northwards to the Umgeni River. This is a prime destination for the leisure-bent holidaymaker, a sun-kissed and marvelously inviting mix of gardens, lawns, walkways, fountains, playgrounds, piers, pools, pavilions, hotels, nightspots, shops, restaurants, entertainment centres, together with blue ocean, warm golden sands and the broad flanking thoroughfare named Marine Parade. Of Special Note Beaches All are enticing; the most popular (and sometimes uncomfortably crowded) is the kilometre-long stretch between South Beach and North Beach, which fronts Lower Marine Parade. Lifeguards are on duty; the surfing is excellent both here and, most especially, in the next-door Bay of Plenty. The seafront becomes a lot less congested the further north you go. Sea World Both a showcase of marine life and renowned research centre. Sea World is an aquarium housing a fantasia of tropical fish species, sharks, rays, giant turtles, octopuses, corals and crustaceans, colourful anemones, seashells and much else. The sharks are probably the centre's biggest drawcard (they're fed by hand, by intrepid scuba-divers, at lunchtimes on three days of the week) but the dolphinarium next door also draws the crowds. Seals and jackass penguins help the dolphins entertain visitors. Snake Park On Snell Parade; home to around half the country's 160-odd species of snake plus an intriguing array of other reptiles - crocodiles, iguanas (known locally as leguaans), tortoises and terrapins. Some exotic reptiles are kept in special (temperature-controlled) cages. Demonstrations are laid on for the public, most often during holiday periods. Amphitheatre Marine Parade; a quietly attractive sunken garden of lawn, flower and fountain offering relief from the seafront bustle. It also hosts the Sunday fleamarket. Minitown For the young at heart: a miniature and meticulously crafted city incorporating Durban and other South African landmarks, including a harbour and its ships, airport, traffic-laden thoroughfares The Wheel A lively shopping and entertainment complex boasting around 150 speciality outlets, restaurants, bars and cinemas. The name is taken from the huge revolving Ferris wheel that decorates the front; inside the theme is part Oriental, part nautical. Indian Durban Walk a little way west of the central area and you'll find yourself in a different world, a place of exotic sights, sounds and smells - of bright saris mingling with more prosaic Western wear, the air filled with the aromas of incense, sandalwood, a myriad spices, with unfamiliar languages and the semi-tonal cadences of Eastern music. The Indian heritage is also visible in other places within the wider Durban area. Jumma Musjid Mosque The mosque, the Southern Hemisphere's largest place of worship and a visitor-friendly place that welcomes callers, stands at the corner of Grey and Queen streets. Please dress appropriately; remove shoes before entering. Victoria Street Market A multi-domed, exotically ornate building that showcases, on the ground floor, a wonderful selection of Indian foods; the floor above offers more conventional shopping plus some inviting eateries. There's also a fresh fish market. Temple of Understanding The Hare Krishna temple, the city's most prominent Hindu place of worship, was built (by the International Society of Krishna Consciousness) in a curious but effective mix of Western and Eastern styles. Rising above the moat and the surrounding, beautifully landscaped gardens are three ornate gold-trimmed towers; inside you'll find a pink-and-white marbled foyer and the huge, high-ceilinged, hexagonal temple chamber, unfurnished but decorated with mirrors, beadwork and marble facings. Ramakrishna Centre, close to KwaMashu north of the city, is the location of Mahatma Gandhi Phoenix settlement, a place for quiet meditation; relics and reminders of the great man are on view. |
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DURBAN Western Cape
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