SA is Ayoba: Durban

After three years and a 16 hour flight on Air France, it was awesome to see the golden sands of Durban appearing in the distance and know that I was finally home.

Holland may be beautiful, but it's not quite the same as tropical Durbs - even in mid-winter!

Durban - also called Durbs, abbreviated to DBN, or called "eThekwini" in Zulu, is
located in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal on the south-east coast of South Africa...
And it's where I come from: the Golden Mile...

My visit in Durbs started with my best friend Wae, one of the most wonderful human beings on the planet :-) Aside from 2 days of shopping in Amsterdam, since I moved to Holland, our conversations have been limited by Skype, which generally kicks us offline within 3 hours.

This time, in 10 days, between endless coffees, chocolate, late nights, parties and lots and LOTS of lingerie, I'd say we managed to catch up about 25% of our news, while Shaun very patiently tolerated the total domination of all available conversation time (thanks, buddy ;) and supplied me with liberal quantities of yummy curry and roti.

And in case that wasn't heavenly enough, my bedroom even came with a pre-installed cat, as well as 3 other resident purries and 2 furry puppies to make me feel at home.

Torrent (the welcoming committee)

After getting installed, my first day was spent at the IHeart market on Durban beachfront, where the promenade has changed but the lazy lifestyle remains the same - and priceless.

Sunken Gardens - Durban beachfront

I had a day of mooching in the sea-breeze, chatting to Wae, buying curio's from some nice vendors and perving over surfers before we headed back home to prepare for the party!

Wae's party

I haven't been able to attend Wae's legendary birthday bashes for the last couple of years, so naturally I went all out for this year's theme: superheroes :-)

Suffice to say that Superman, Batman, Batgirl, She-ra, Thor and Lumo-Boy were in attendance... (In other words, it was a smashing night :)

And there was curry!

The birthday girl :-)

Me and my best friend :-) :-)

Virginia Airshow

Virginia beach

Wae and Shaun also took me to the Virginia Airshow, where we spent a glorious day lounging on golden sands, eating mussels and doing nothing but watch the planes fly over us...

From stuntplanes and one crazy air-acrobat to Polisie planes and Lynx helicopters, to formation flights and a rather impressive fly-over by a Boeing, it was a fantastic day.

The Boeing 737 doing turns that made me glad I was not aboard!

I didn't spend all my time lazing on the beach, though - I had far too many people to see!

I got to visit Danielle and Mattie (who fed me awesome veggie curry), Cookie, Jenny (who fed me coffee at my favourite yellow brand on Sydney Road :-), Dad and Rose (who fed me more lekker curry and took me curio-hunting and sight-seeing all over town), Chicken, Nalika (who spoilt me rotten!), Trav, Mrs Howells, Gajen, Themba and kitchen at Waxy's...

In case that doesn't sound like enough, I went to the Botanic Gardens, KZN Art Centre, African Art Gallery, another African art gallery, Jack at Windemere (who sold me some amazing beadwork!), and Mitchell Park (where I got to feast my eyes on fluffies - thanks, T*)...

Here are just a few of the pics:

Curio-hunting on Durban beachfront with Dad

Dad and Rose with the vuvuzela - sorry, neighbours...

View at Danielle's: so many birds - she even has Fish Eagles living in the valley!

Musgrave - view from Mitchell Park

Durban Botanic Gardens

Sunset at Cookie's - Berea

View of the new FIFA stadium, Moses Mabhida, and Durbs

While I was based out in Durban North, no visit home would be complete without visiting my beloved/detested hometown: Westville...

Westville Civic Centre

While the area is not as well maintained as it used to be (I hit one thunking great pothole!), the palm trees, wide roads and valleys are still so beautiful... And, no surprise to the locals, despite a renovated Westville Mall and one or two little details, basically nothing has changed!

While I was in Westville, I couldn't resist visiting my old house at number 4... And the views are stilll spectacular.

Waterloo Road

Waterloo Road (look how tall the palms have grown!)

View from Waterloo Road to the sea

I didn't get any nice shots of number 4 this time, so here are some from when I left in 2008.
The palms are taller now, and the house is painted a moderately kak pale brown color, but otherwise it looks the same...