Durban
The Warmest Sea In South Africa And The Largest Indian Population Outside India, Which Together Make Durban A Different Country From The Cape: A Surfable Golden Mile With Shark Nets And Lifeguards, Victoria Street Market And The Bunny Chow, Zulu Culture In The City It Is The Capital Of, And The Busiest Container Port In Africa Working Behind It All · Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
Durban is the warm one. The Indian Ocean here sits around twenty-two to twenty-six degrees all year, which makes it the only major South African city where swimming is a year-round activity rather than an act of endurance, and the Golden Mile beachfront has been rebuilt into a long promenade of surf breaks, piers, lifeguards and shark nets. The other thing that makes Durban itself is people: indentured labourers brought from India from 1860 to work the sugar left the largest Indian population of any city outside India, and the food that came out of that - the bunny chow, a hollowed-out loaf filled with curry - is the city's contribution to the world. It is also the capital of KwaZulu-Natal and a Zulu city, and the busiest container port in Africa works behind the beach. It is humid, subtropical, less polished than Cape Town and more itself than anywhere else in the country, and a good deal more itself for it.
On the Indian Ocean at the country's busiest port, with the Golden Mile beachfront running north from uShaka, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
A city, so the beachfront, the promenade and the streets are open at any hour - but THE BEACHFRONT AFTER DARK IS NOT SAFE for visitors and the row says so plainly. LIFEGUARDS AND SHARK NETS COVER THE PATROLLED BEACHES ONLY, during daylight, and swimming outside the flagged areas is how people get into trouble on this coast. uShaka Marine World keeps daylight hours with a ticket and is the main family attraction. Victoria Street Market and the Indian quarter trade by day and are quiet on Sundays. The Moses Mabhida stadium's arch walk and skycar run daily. Surf is best in the early morning before the onshore wind. King Shaka airport is forty kilometres north, the N3 runs up to Johannesburg in six hours, and the Drakensberg is about four hours west.