Juicy bits - Starting from Durban

The whole 'Clipper' experience is not just about sailing. It includes the joining and signing off ports, the parties and functions that took place at these ports and personal holidays.

Well since I joined the boat in Durban, let's start with Durban... what did I do and what did I see? Guess pictures will be the best way to show.

Where we went...?
I went to a little town off Durban city called Umdloti (pronounced as Um-shlod-tee) with my team mate. It was about 30 minutes drive from the Durban city centre where the boats are berthed.
I stayed at Dolphin View Bed & Breakfast place. It only cost me 220 Rands (aprrox S$66.00) per night. For 2 persons, we paid 440 Rands per night for a 2-bedroom cottage with living room and kitchen and continental breakfast. That was a very good deal. Visit the web for more information. http://www.dolphinview.net/


This is the view of the pool from the little courtyard where we had our breakfast every morning. The best entertainment for breakfast was daily visit by the dolphins - the B & B places delivers the name of its place - Dolphin View.

Indeed! I saw dolphins jumping out of the water every now and then and performing stunts - seems like they knew that there had to cheer a sick person.

The weather
Lovely weather. We had lovely sunshine in the day and temperature is probably about 20 deg cel. According to the locals,the summer had not really been their usual summer. At night it was chilly, temperatures dip to about 12-15 deg cel. I like such weather.

Our favourite restaurant cum bar - Bush Tavern.
We went there for lunch and dinner for 3 days. By the end of our trip I believe we tried every main course that were available on their menu.

The waitress who served us was a very pretty dark Indian with a very white set of teeth. She is a very small petite woman who is 7 months pregnant - very sexily pregnant... if I were to describe my impression of her. I can't quite recall her name but she definitely made us feel very welcomed to this little town. She served us every time we were there for our meals and gave me tips on what to take for my cough.

The long beach walks...
Oooo.... it's simply amazing walking on the coastline of South Africa. The Indian Ocean waves pounding onto the shores. Numerous kite-surfers surfing on the ocean.

On different days, different wind direction and speeds brought different view.

I liked all the long walks that I had with my team mate and another aussie crew whom we met while having lunch at the cafes. The walks probably helped me to tone up my calf muscles - 3 hours of walk in one day on sand is no kidding!

Coolest vehicle - Beach Buggy
Nigel drove the most "coolest" car and I sat at the back where there weren't any 'proper' seats at all. He used torn settees over the metal frame of the car.

He was the cool guy... he brought me to the Natal Shark Board for a tour. There was live demostration of cutting a dead shark and ooohhh... the pungent smell of ammonia from the stomach is disgusting.



Braai - BBQ in Africaans
We were invited by two local white South Africans to their sky-diving range for braai - the local version of bbq. How we were invited? Well, guess must be my charms...hahahha so not shy!! My team-mate and I were having dinner at Bush Tavern on the second night of our stay in Umdloti. 2 locals sitting in the next table walked up to us after staring for a good hour. They asked if we were from Singapore. Well, no prizes for guessing right... but we had been the odd tourists in this little town. We stood out. In fact, our walks on the streets were met with long stares.... we definitely looked like some aliens to the young children.

Any how, the two guys were - Dale and Ralph. They joined us for after dinner drinks and we chatted till almost midnight.... and before the night ended, they extended invitation to us to join them and their friends for braai at their sky-diving range which is about 5km away from the town.

Looking back - we had been really brave to go for the braai with people that we barely know. The place where we had the braai was so so desserted. It didn't have proper roads, it was total darkness in the grasslands... we absolutely have no idea where we were and no means of getting ourselves out of that range. Luckily for us, we met a crew from the Western Australia boat in the day and asked him along. So it was 2 guys and me... not that by having more of us means less danger.

Well, we were treated with local delights of barbecued meat & sausages - Ooooo...actually there was nothing for me to eat cos the meat were all beef. There was nothing I could drink as well - cos only beer was served. Being sick with cough and allergic to beef, I basically went on diet that night. What a braai indeed!!!

My Next Adventure - Tandem Jump
Despite hearing the recent Singaporean skydiver who died when the reserve parachute fail to open, I think I might still give tandem jump a try... at least once.

Sending off....
here's me onboard US leaving the Point Yacht club... was a spectacular send off. There were thousands of people at the harbour front and hundreds of boats as send off party.