For our day in Durban we had pre-booked a ship’s tour to the Tala Game Preserve, about an hour’s drive North of Durban. We were about an hour late getting started for our trip due to the slow process of South African immigration procedures.
Once on the road, we drove through the heart of Durban, a clean modern coastal city, at the height of activity in preparation for it’s role in hosting of the World Cup in June. We passed by the beautiful new soccer stadium, just completed for the games. It seems that there is a great deal of controversy among the citizens as to whether South Africa will be able to pull off the job of being the host country, and whether Durban in particular will be able to house all of the people expected to attend from other countries. I guess we’ll find out soon.
Tala is a private game preserve located on approximately 7,000 acres of what was once a large potato farm. It is relatively new, and still in the process of expanding it’s facilities and increasing it’s perimeter security so that it will be able to accommodate a wider variety of animals. Currently the park has none of the large cats or elephants, however we were able to see a large number of giraffes, many zebra, herds of various breeds of antelopes, white rhinos, hippos, and others. We had an excellent guide, who was very knowledgeable and who provided an excellent experience for us at the park.
Our second stop in South Africa was at the port city of East London. Many aboard, who had been to East London on prior occasions, warned that this was not an attractive stop, and to be very careful walking about the town. We opted for a shuttle bus that took us to a large mall/casino on the outskirts of town. The drive through the city took us directly through the main downtown area, which pretty well confirmed to us that this was not an area in which we would feel safe walking. We did a little shopping at the mall, then like most of our fellow passengers, rode the shuttle back to the ship. We all wondered why Princess would select a city such as this for a port call, when there are other cities in the area which are much more attractive, and with much more to see and do. Today is our last day at sea before reaching our final destination of Cape Town. More from there
Sounds like you had a great experience at the game reserve. What type of transportation did you have for the tour? Are you looking forward to being on land for more than a day or two? Look forward to your blog on Cape Town. Have a safe flight to Dublin and home. Looking forward to seeing you guys and hearing all about the trip.
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