We’ve always wanted to live near the beach and Umhlanga is a dream come true! One thing however—there are several varieties of sharks in the Indian Ocean!! A shark can swim easily in knee-deep water. There used to be fatal shark attacks every year in this area. Solution: Sharks Board. Nets and drum lines are positioned all along the coast line to catch the sharks to prevent them from coming near to shore where the sun bathers are. There have been no fatalities since the Board has been established in 1962 — good job, Sharks Board!! To learn about the Sharks, the nets and the safety of swimming at the beach, we thought it’d be a great idea to do the Dissection and Boat Tour. Ah, well— you win some, you lose some!😂
The Sharks Board checks the nets every day that it’s safe to take the boats out on the water. The live sharks that are caught are tagged for tracking and educational purposes and released back out in the ocean to safety. Some of the sharks don’t survive getting caught in the nets and these lifeless specimens are used for the dissection demonstrations. This little guy looks like he has a smile on his face, but yeah, he didn’t make it and it’s been a few days on ice for him! To quote Doug: Man, that smells bad!!!
We lost a few attendees with weak stomaches from the audience but our group toughed it out — no one wanted to be the first one to wimp out, haha
The sardine run from a shark’s perspective
The next day we all headed down to the Durban harbor bright and early for the boat ride!
The boys in the boat
The drum line
It’s lonely at the top! That’s all I’m going to say!😂
Grey Heron takes flight
Next outing: a walk to the beach and lunch at our favorite Grimaldi’s with Kirk and Sue, view overlooking Umhlanga Rocks. Calamari, pizza and Coke Zero all around!😋
So fun to have friends from home come visit! Kirk and Sue get the gold star for being the first to fly exactly half way around the world to see us! I had a suitcase full of requests from home: Dougs favorite taco sauce, American Mayo (they use canola oil in all the Mayo here!) American M&Ms (peanuts are smaller here and roasted in funky oil of some kind), relish, Kirklands brand chicken, some games for us to play that didn’t make the cut for when we packed to come — so yeah, life is good!!
A visit to the iconic Oyster Box
Gotta come back sometime to dine!! Looks amazing!!
Back at the apartment, Mexi for dinner with fresh corn tortillas from California and game night!! The Queen of Games has arrived!! Bank, Five Crowns, Chameleon— Sue always knows the latest and funnest new games!
