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Kwazulu Natal Accommodation |
The KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa is famous for its warm climate, its magnificent beaches and its tropical flora. The Durban beachfront is a cultural experience. It is here where the traveller will find holidaying families, young surfers, Indian ladies elegantly walking the sand in flowing silken saris and traditional healers collecting bottles of seawater to use as medicine and.
The ocean does play an important part in Durban, there are two yacht clubs and one very big commercial harbour. The Bat Centre, Durban's most interesting cultural venue, overlooks the small boat harbour where stubby-nosed tugs come to rest after a hard morning pushing tankers around. One can also lunch virtually in the shadow of huge container ships and cruise liners as they enter the harbour through the narrow entrance in front of the Bluff.
Shopping is a special experience in Durban - the eastern influence of the enormous Indian population adds a touch of spice, literally and figuratively. The curious traveller has the opportunity to explore the Indian Market or just wander down Grey Street, where many interesting little shops can be found.
At the Durban beachfront itself, wonderful examples of traditional beadwork and basketry are for sale at incredibly low prices. For something more upmarket, and very interesting, the Gateway Shopping Centre offers a great shopping experience. It has a climbing wall and an enormous artificial standing wave - the first artificial double-point break in the world.
Some of the hardest climbs in South Africa are at the Wave Cave at Shongweni, near Durban, and there are some fun bolted routes in the Kloof Gorge.
The diving just south of Durban is great. In winter and early spring, migratory ragged tooth sharks (Carcharias tauras) are in residence at Aliwal Shoal, and can be visited on a specially organised dive. But there are also a lot of coral-encrusted rock reefs with pretty tropical fish for the less intrepid. For the hardcore diver, Protea Banks is a must.
Drakensberg Mountains
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park is famous for its outstanding natural beauty. It is Africa's highest mountain range south of the Kilimanjaro, a fascinating and ancient geology, some of the rarest animals in the world and the largest, richest and most concentrated series of rock art in Africa can be found here.
In 2000 the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park became the fourth site in South Africa to be claimed World Heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Internationally, there are 812 World Heritage sites, in 137 countries. Africa has 65 sites and South Africa a total of seven. Three of these are cultural sites and three natural. The Drakensberg, because of its remarkable geology and unmatched wealth of San rock art, is a mixed cultural and natural World Heritage site.
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park lies in the west of KwaZulu-Natal on the Lesotho border. It is 243 000 hectares in size, stretching 150 kilometres from Royal Natal National Park in the north to Cobham Forest Station in the south.
Both the Zulu name uKhahlamba - barrier of spears - and the Afrikaans name Drakensberg - dragon mountains - fit the formidable horizon created by the range.
A massive basaltic cap set on a broad base of sedimentary rocks belonging to the Stormberg series of 150-million years ago, the mountains are South Africa's main watershed.
For more than 4 000 years they were home to the indigenous San people, who created a vast body of rock art - the largest and most concentrated collection in Africa. There are some 600 sites and 35 000 individual images in the Drakensberg.
In describing the park's natural heritage, Unesco notes its "exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands, the pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges also contribute to the beauty of the site."
Sightseeing places and attractions in and around Durban:
UShaka Marine World
Gateway Theater of Shopping in Umhlanga
Umhlanga Rocks
North Beach and South Beach
Sibaya Casino and Suncoast Casino
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For more Kwazulu Natal Accommodation options, please go to South African Hotels.
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