so glad showered the night before, as was totally running late, although it worked out in the end. while in the kitchen grabbing a quick breakfast, met anna & chris (a young couple from san diego) who were also on their way to kruger for 9 days. i told them all about my experience, and was pretty envious they were going to get over a full week there. i ended up giving them a ride to the airport - traffic was ridiculous due to rush hour - but we chatted and exchanged info, should i ever end up in the san diego area (which is a possibility). dropped my car off at europcar, and basically just handed over the keys. no paperwork, no inspection. i kept asking the guy - is that it? he was like "yes, you can go!" so different than in the US. kinda sketch, but whatever.
after going to 2 wrong airline counters.. yet another cultural difference - kept being directed "over there" with an apathetic hand wave. finally found the correct one and checked my bag. security was pretty lax, maybe b/c it was a domestic flight. found my gate and sat around for a while, then browsed some shops to pass the time. debra eventually found her way to the gate - reunion! it was so good to see her and it's good to begin phase 2 of my trip, thought i'm really not sure what to expect with this tour portion. we shall see soon enough.
boarded the short flight to durban - we got served sandwiches! seriously, it was like an hour long flight. you don't even get peanuts sometimes on a 5 hr long flight in the states. made our way to bag claim and thankfully everything arrived. we immediately felt the difference in temperature, much warmer, even borderline hot. ah, sunshine! after hitting up an ATM, found our way to the R30 shuttle mentioned in LP. thought if they could just take us to a close enough hotel to where we were staying, we could walk the rest of the way. the drivers weren't originally going to take us, but when we said we were staying at on the beach guesthouse, one of them recognized it and agreed to take us for R80. a bit more than anticipated, but still much more affordable than a taxicab.
durban must be a fairly wealthy place, the homes were just gorgeous. so could get used to it here. our ride dropped us off close enough, and we only had to walk 1/2 k to our lodge. it was super cute, and pretty well secured. checked in and dropped our stuff off. i asked about laundry and they had it fortunately. they even did it for me! at least i won't be smelly girl. while that was being taken care of, deb and i decided to walk around and at least see some of durban's beachfront since we only had this one day here.
we walked along the sand for a while, and i got to touch the indian ocean - very exciting! it was chilly, but not cold. the sound of the waves and smell of the ocean are two things i miss greatly living in seattle. after a while, our feet got tired from walking on the sand, so we made our way back to a road. came across a sign that indicated a restaurant/pub and decided to check it out. it was funny at first b/c it was part of a guesthouse, and i wasn't sure if you had to be a "guest" to use it. but they didn't seem to mind. so with a castle lager in hand, enjoyed a just stunning vista and caught up with deb. we eventually made our way back to the road and headed to the lighthouse. love lighthouses! we figured it was a good turn around point, as the sun sets quickly here, and we didn't want to walk in the dark.
back at the hostel, noticed a mega truck parked out in front. not that i was expecting luxury, but the thing was massive - which means there were going to be a lot of people traveling with us. great. met a few people on our way inside, and said the obligatory hellos and introductions. was already feeling overwhelmed by all the names. deb's all about socializing, so i kinda let her take the lead there and hung back a bit. also, checked on my laundry which was thankfully almost done. yay for clean clothes! back outside, met a few more people. it seems they had all been traveling for a while together, had inside jokes and had already bonded quite a bit. not sure how much we'll break into that - but there were 6 people leaving, and 6 joining, keeping the group at an even 20. read: large. i've never traveled in a group larger than 3, so this will be interesting.
around 18:30 we all - as in all 27 of us - went out for dinner. the first place couldn't accommodate such a big group, so we ended up at jimmy's killer prawns haha. it was decent food, but everyone was pretty well occupied with taking photos and saying their goodbyes that i really started to get a bit nervous. did we make the right decision? time will tell. we sat across from a young canadian couple, chad and kayla. super nice, but also pretty quiet. they'd been on the trip since it's start - 47 days. crazy! i think i'd be pretty quiet, too. back at the hostel, a lot of people chose to stay up, but with a 5:00 am start - it was bedtime for this girl. met some people in our room - victoria, who's been traveling for a while, and fran and jane - both newcomers like deb and myself. all seem nice. keeping an open mind about this group tour thing!
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