Arrived this afternoon
Bizarre weather. Cloudy and most and the same temperature all day.
We spent a very nice single night stop at Salt Rock near Durban about 20 miles south of Durban. We stay the night in an flat belonging to Paula. The flat is in a complex of between 20 to 50 flats called the Evergreen estate, Ballito, with a beautiful shared communal garden in the middle with amazing (to us) bushes and trees and masses of birds.
Paula had put out fruit in the trees near a balcony and we were visited in the morning by the family of vervet monkeys who came to eat the fruit and the seed.
When Paula rents out her flat she moves next door with her partner Ant. Ant lives with his mother who wants one day to visit Penzance where her ancestors came from. Paula and Ant can’t find jobs in the new South Africa or at least not jobs that it pays them to do. Paula feels she has a good quality of life: she lives in a beautiful place and she doesn’t have to do any domestic chores because she can pay someone 200 rands a day to-do everything. Ant used to work as an F D but lost his job and hasn’t been able to find another one. He blames the government’s positive discrimination policy.
Link to article explaining about this if i can find it again. Maybe this one.
Security is a concern for both of them they both have experiences of being robbed. The Complex has gates and fences all round there was guard on duty in evening.
Tim woke up early and discovered a small group of monkeys eating the fruit and seeds by the veranda. Imogen and Denise got up in time to see them too.
We were surprised by how green the area around Durban is. On Sunday morning we drove along the coast to Durban and to the N3 inland. For the first hour or so, green rolling countryside. What did it remind us of? Wales? Switzerland? On the end we decided on New Zealand, so long as you didn’t look too closely. Got to our destination mid afternoon.
Photos / movies to add
movie 9368 – 2 x birds + bird at mirror
9371 – good panorama
9372 woodpecker at start,
movies of birds eating ants
Bronze mannikins?
Cape white eye
Or
African yellow white eye
Village weaver ???
And the little glossy bird?
It’s a collared sunbird, a female..(make has a green throat!)