Sunday, August 9, 2015

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 - Richards Bay, South Africa


We were up at 7 and went for coffee.  Getting off of the ship now that were are in South Africa is a bit of a pain.  We had to be interviewed by 4 South African officials!  A bit of overkill.

We finally got off of the ship and onto our tour bus with Bingo, our guide.

We had a 1 ½ hour ride to Shakaland.  This is a Zulu village built for the move Shaka Zulu.  Once the movie was made someone bought it as a tourist attraction.  The tour guides were great  and we got to go into many huts.  We met people, they danced for us, we saw a movie about Zululand and we bought several beaded items.  It was rainy and cloudy in the morning, but sunny in the afternoon.
A dirt path leading to "Shakaland"

A recreated Zulu Village - built for a movie and now turned into an "attraction"

An unusual thatch roof on a cottage - the "comfort stop"

The Zulu language at Shakaland

Beautiful vistas to a lake in the distance

Our Zulu guide was very informative and fun

One of the Zulu men in traditional dress - the women were traditionally topless, but not here

A demonstration with various tools and implements

A Zulu shield with one of the Zulu warriors

A Zulu woman selling homemade objects

Our guide explaining implements that they used in their homes

A display of spears and shields

Tim at Shakaland

We got to meet "the chief" of the village

Larry dancing with the chief

Chickens roaming all around Shakaland

One of the Zulu women

Inside one of the large meeting buildings - they did a demonstration

The men sat on one side, women on the other - Zulu style

Then a ceremony with the chief - again men on one side - women on the other

A traditional greeting for guests ceremony

Then a large show - dancers, drummers, and singers

The men did a lot of stomping around to drums beating

Beautiful outfits

Then some of the guests got to dance too!

They had young boys doing some of the dances

An elderly woman was one of the loudest singers

Beautiful different traditional dances

Some of the young children in the Zulu village

A replica of how the village was originally set up with animals kept in the middle

A gift in the gift shop - nope - didn't buy it!

Beautiful open countryside in this part of South Africa

We had a 1 ½ hour ride back to the ship.  Then we went to the gym for “arms, shoulders and abs day”.  We were the only ones in the gym.  Then we treated ourselves to a short nap.

We met Michael and Valda (Sydney) in Horizons for drinks.  Then we went to Compass Rose for dinner at 8:15.  They are delightful and so conversational.  They have invited us to visit them in Sydney.

I went to the end of the classical pianist’s concert – wow, he was good.  I then met Tim, Michael, and Valda in Observation for a drink.  But my voice started cracking and within 15 minutes I couldn’t talk at all.  Yep, now I have laryngitis!  I excused myself and went to the cabin, took meds and then went to bed.  I used lots of covers and sweated it out during the night. 

It is a short trip to Durban, South Africa, so the ship is going slowly and not rocking like last night.

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