Pietermaritzburg

(Peter-Mariss-Burg for the linguistically challenged like UG!)

Friday turned out to be very nice weather. We ended up spending it by the pool at the hotel.

Our next stop is Pietermaritzburg, for a mountain bike world cup. I had to book stuff before the details of the race came out. I got lucky booking a hotel just 5 minutes from the venue, but I didn't book the right days. So UG was going to drive the hour from the coast up to the race to catch the downhill qualifying runs, and the 4-cross (4 guys riding downhill at the same time?). But he ended up being lazy like me and spent it at the pool instead.

We were going to go to the beach. But it turns out even the beach they will shuttle you to is not a "swimming beach". I still have no idea what makes a beach un-swimmable here, nobody will say. They just say "the swimming beach is that way." So frustrating to be so close to such a warm ocean and not be able to go in.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was okay. Not spectacular, and the omelet was terrible, but there were enough options that I was finally able to eat. But by about 2pm I was starting to get hungry again. I know the pool burgers are awful, and the only other option on the pool menu is nachos with "cream cheese". Apparently if you want anything else, you aren't allowed to sit at the pool. So I walked to the "beach" bar (closer to the beach, but still not on the beach), and their menu was all Greek mezes. I do like Greek food, mezes not so much. The restaurant inside the hotel had fish and chips, so I walked up there and asked for take-out. They told me no, if I didn't want to eat in the restaurant, I had to go to my room and order room service. I finally snapped, and demanded fish and chips TO GO! For the cost of this place, if I want fish and chips, and I want to sit by the pool, and they HAVE fish and chips, I should be able to take it to the pool. I had had enough of this "if you want to sit in place X, you have a choice of these 3 items. If you want to sit in place Y, you can have a choice of these 2 items" from a resort that brags of all it's food selections. So they let me take it to the pool. Fortunately, it tasted decent, so I didn't have to have another temper tantrum.

And 3 hours later, I was hugging the toilet bowl. UG thinks it was sun stroke, but I've had sun stroke, and that was not it. I'm convinced it was food poisoning, but UG says it took too long to come on. It was not alcohol induced, as I'd only had 3 alcoholic drinks all day. I felt okay in the morning, but I started to feel nauseous part way through breakfast. It came and went throughout the day, but fortunately not as bad as Friday night.

Saturday, we spent another couple of hours by the pool and then drove up to P'burg. The hotel here is a 4 room guest house. We got a phone call from them at 4pm asking if we still planned to stay here, as the staff was planning to go home. It's a pretty little place, all rooms have a private bathroom, and the other 3 rooms were occupied by the Ukrainian cross-country mountain bike team. They checked out early this morning for their flight home, as their final race was yesterday. All the other places we've stayed at here have had some kind of security fence or wall, and 24h staff or security guards, so it was fairly unobtrusive. For example, in Jo'burg, the hotel was surrounded by a wall topped with electric fencing. The only way inside is through the front door, past the valet, bellman and front desk clerk. So individual rooms had the standard hotel key card. At the game reserves, there's an outer perimeter fence, open wilderness filled with vicious animals, then a camp perimeter, so we just had a key to our room. But here, there's an outer wall with a gate which we have a remote for, and then there's a gate on the building itself, and then the door has a lock (we have a key to the back door/gate, only the staff has keys to the front door/gate), and finally we have a key for our room. The weight f the key chain is pulling down UG's pants. (Come to think of it, the place in Graskop only had a wall and a key to our room, no security guard, so I guess that's the reason for the "don't leave your purse near a window" warnings.)

According to the tourist books, Durban has the highest concentration of Indian people outside of India, so the curries here are supposed to be great, so that's what UG wanted for dinner last night. We were told there was a good liitle curry place in a nearby mall, so we headed over there. The stores close at 6pm on Saturdays, but the restaurants in the mall stay open later. Arriving at the mall at 6:15 was a strange experience. The mall was closed, so almost all the lights were out in the parking lot. Yet there were hundreds (thousands?) of people around who had just gotten off work and were waiting for their rides. There were even a few large groups milling around the parking lot, like a bar had just closed. We parked, went in the closest door, and even the mall map was turned off. We managed to figure out that all the restaurants and the movie theatre were on the back side of the mall. So we got back in the car and tried to drive to the back side. But the back side had no entrance, just delivery doors. Finally, we found a door with lights on and cars in the parking lot and used that entrance. That turned out to be the closest entrance to the restaurants, and since they were still open, even the mall map was still on.

I dropped UG off at the race venue this morning and came back to the hotel. I had planned to do some exploring on my own, but because the driving is so bad here, I'll probably just hang by the pool some more. Although, I realized I left my bathing suit in the lobby of the hotel on the coast, just as we were arriving in P'burg. So I'll have to wear my snorkelling bathing suit if I want to swim in the pool, which consists of a surfer's "rash shirt" to protect me from sunburn. A little dorky for the pool, but better than nothing. MUCH better than nothing. The other hotel is really close to the airport, so I'll be able to pick it up on our way out tomorrow.

We are scheduled to fly out to Cape Town tomorrow. I got an email yesterday from the shark tour we have booked for Wednesday saying that high winds have been forecasted, so they will be cancelling Wednesday's tour, and can we book another day. Yes, we're in the area for 9 days, partially just for that reason. UG checked the Cape Town forecast this morning, and Tuesday is predicted to be 11C and raining. Ug. So I have spent part of my morning looking into whether it's feasible to just stay in Durban a few days longer. Flights are no big deal, but the rental car might be difficult. And finding a decent place to stay was hard enough before. With just a day's notice, it's pretty much imppossible. So now I gotta figure out what to do in Cape Town when the weather is 11C, raining with high winds.