Safari Taster

Bishop bird

Waiting crowd

Durban port

Wait for me, Mum!

Trusty Landy

Low profile

Spot the giraffes

Just browsing

Keep off that, skipper!

Lost in traffic

Muddy Pumbah

On Safari!

Flotilla

Waiting for a clean-up

Giraffes in there!

Playing warthogs

Tala welcome

The Reserve

That's what I think of tourists

Antelope, antelope

Who are you?

Wild life

Yellow Kite & Egrets

Zebra crossings

Cunard warned everyone how dangerous Durban would be, but we thought that given a bit of common sense we should be OK, even on a tame game drive, so spent the morning on board enjoying the sunshine, watching the fuel bunkering process, having a coffee, then we packed up a Cunard snack for our trip to Tala Game Reserve, about 60k out of Durban towards Johannesburg.

No predators live on this private estate developed by an entrepreneur who also owned 57 KFC outlets - hope the spare Impala don’t end up Kentucky Fried, but wouldn’t be surprised! A very interesting drive out of town, past a few townships and more salubrious housing, complete with the obligatory razor wire, which all nice houses seem to have.

It was a great day for a game trip, not too hot, so we mounted our trusty petrol Land Rover (which must have been 30 years old if it was a day and desperately in need of new ignition points and tune-up) and set off in search of the animals kept on the 7,000-acre reserve. The Hippos were a bit elusive, but there they were in their pond keeping an eye on us. Most of the animals gave us the best views of their bottoms, but it was great fun off-roading in the bush. The morning tour hadn’t seen the Giraffes so we were delighted when we got really close to a small group and then spotted a larger herd across the valley.

Altogether we spent nearly 3 hours there before our journey home, having seen all the animals we expected and with our appetite boosted for a real Safari in the future.

Departure was delayed about 1½ hours by the late return of the Overland Tour which had done the real thing in the Sabi Game Reserve, so the 40+ waiting yachts were getting a bit frustrated waiting for us to leave the berth. It was almost dark as we reversed into the harbour and followed the dog-leg channel out into the Indian Ocean. The escort followed us all the way to the sea, with much hooting and cheering from the large crowds on the shore and Vuvuzelas onboard; they seemed really pleased to see the ship, which must have looked magnificent against the night sky – all those lights!!

Three days at sea now before Mauritius, where we hope to see Dave Norval for a few hours. The Hotel Staff will be delighted to be there too, because a whole container of chilled goods had been spoiled in Rio when the chiller plant failed – which explains the shortage of a lot of stuff on the menu! Ship is full of Australians on cheap deals back to Oz – the atmosphere is certainly a lot different – we wonder what formal nights will be like!! At least we have a new act on board – an excellent comedian we have met before on Oriaaaana!