Discovering Durban

Did you know that South Africa's under 12 Girl Chess Champion lives in Durban?

And did you know that Rodrigus met her?

On Christmas Day 2007, he was roller balding with Telana on the beachfront of Durban- one of the best places in South Africa to roller blade, according to Telana- and they bumped into the only other roller blader that day: Tasnim Amra. She travels all over the world competing in chess tournaments and aims to bring the title of World Champion back to South Africa, and has now taken up roller blading too! Tasnim is expected to play at the world youth championship in Vietnam in October 2008- so her rollerblades have been given a rest for a while. On Christmas day though, Telana tried to give her a few pointers, which just made Rod laugh as Telana is fast on her blades, but has no clue how to stop! So his advice to Tasnim was to find someone else to teach her!

Rod did grin with glee (even more than Telana did) when they roller bladed next to one of the few rickshaws left in Durban.

Hundreds of them once worked the city in the 1930’s, but only about 20 remain taking tourists for short thrills along the beach. Some sugar tycoon brought the rickshaw to KwaZulu Natal in the late 1800’s to transport his wife around, and now it’s part of the Zulu culture with colourful costumes and impressive headdresses!

The next day Rod experienced a lunch with a difference: watching sharks swim by as he munched away!

Everyone enjoyed a scrumptious lunch at the Cargo Hold restaurant in uShaka Marine World. This restaurant is most unusual, as it is literally inside a ship wreck, and has a tank with sharks and fish right in the middle of it!

Rodrigus also has was his first introduction to some Zulu culture as he watched the Zulu warriors doing their Indlama style of dance, lifting one leg in the air and brining it down together with their hands. He also got to see some Zulu women singing and dancing!

The last highlight of this quick trip to Durban, was tea and scones at a cosy restaurant over looking the Valley of a Thousand Hills in Zululand! Here Rod found a frog made out of beads!

So although it was a quick trip to Durban, Rodrigus still smiles as he reminisces about sharks and rollerblading and meeting Tasnim!