The Indian Ocean!!

On Wednesday, after Jenn makes and receives a few phone calls we head out to Durban and the Indian Ocean.  When I was growing up, I never thought I’d make it to Africa, and I’ve now been there twice (I was in Egypt in 1979 on a trip to the Holy Land).  But the Indian Ocean, that was even further away than Africa.  Being at the Indian Ocean, WOW!!  We got there about 5:30 in the afternoon.  We had eaten a late lunch on the way, so we weren’t hungry when we got there.  We looked the place over, and were impressed.  The Indian Ocean was right out our deck, patio, or lani, whatever you want to call it.  It was huge (both the ocean and the deck).  As we looked down on the ocean, I was amazed at the volume of noise that was coming up.  It was really loud.  And it didn’t stop.  When we went to bed that first night, I shut the sliding doors in our room and the noise was just as loud with them shut as when they were open.  Later I found out that they hadn’t installed the sliding doors correctly, and even though the doors were shut in the middle, they were open at each end.  When I discovered that the next day and shut them completely, it was still loud.  It was a good sound, but I was amazed that it was so very loud, all the time, didn’t stop. 

The accomodations were great.  We had three bedrooms, one with 2 bunk beds, and two with queen beds.  Two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining area, and a living room with television, and we found out on Thursday morning, a maid came in and did the dishes, cleaned the floors, made the beds, etc.  This made it a vacation for everyone. 

After we settled in the first evening, Jenn and I went into the business section to get a few groceries and to get an internet connection.  We actually stayed in a town called Ballito, just north of Durban, and it was just a short drive from our place to the shopping center.  We got to the shopping area, a small mall at 6:30, and all the stores were closed.  We really needed to get connected to the internet because it had been out at Thrive for over a week.  Jenn had gotten it at one of the coffee shops before and knew what to do, so I sat outside in the dark, using my flashlight if I needed to see the keyboard, got connected and sent the e-mail.  Jenn went to buy the groceries.  She came back and said that everything was closed.  The town shut down sometime before 6 pm.  All the stores except the video rental place and a bar were closed.  So, we went back to the apartment and ate some snacks that we had brought with us.

The next day we went swimming in the ocean.  You can see some pictures of Jenn, Becca, Andy and I and what the waves did to us.  The undertow there was tremendous.  We didn’t go very far out and had to fight to keep from being swept out with the tide.  But we had fun.  We got sand in everything.  I had sand stuck in my hair, and if you look closely, you’ll see that that is pretty hard to do. 

Becca and Jenn went swimming in the pool and Marty and I walked down the street to a local store and bought groceries.  There were many people selling things alongside the road, and later I went back and bought three beach towels.  They also had a pizza place near the store, and we had that for dinner one night. 

We had fun going to the beach, swimming in the pool, listening to the waves beat against the shore, resting and relaxing.  It was a great place to do those things.  The Thrive staff was told not to call Jenn, and they didn’t.  What a great blessing that was to not have the phone ringing all the time.  It was a great vacation time for all of us. 

They also have something in South Africa that we don’t have here, and that is a butter flavored olive oil.  Jenn puts that on the popcorn after it is popped and it tastes like you were at the movies.  Really good.  Can’t get that same flavoring here, and we’ve looked in a number of places.  Maybe we’ll have to import it from South Africa.  

The noise was louder than this, all the time.  Awesome!!