Durban South Africa – Africa’s Busiest Port.
Africa’s busiest general cargo port and container terminal in the Southern Hemisphere, is without a doubt, the port of Durban, the 9th largest harbor in the world. It has become increasingly popular as a holiday resort for foreign yachts, and is also used as a stopover for cruise liners. The province today is known as KwaZulu Natal, the town of Durban and the harbor, being its main centre, but is said that it began when Vasco da Gama sighted the bay on Christmas Day 1497, when he anchored, off the Bluff, naming the lush green land Natal as a sign of respect for the Nativity. The entrance to the bay named Rio-de-Natal. Thereafter, British colonization began in 1824 and the settlement was named Port Natal, and was once again renamed Durban in 1835 after Sir Benjamin D’Urban the governor of the Cape Colony.
This is a real holiday paradise, with warm beaches, lined by hotels and apartments with fantastic views over the ocean. Surrounded by sugar cane fields and sub-tropical vegetation of all different sorts of plants, trees and flowers, which are not found in other parts of South Africa.
Durban harbor is fed by several streams – there are also two piers at its mouth, the Point to the north, which lies at the far end of the Golden Mile, Durbans beachfront, and lined with hotels. The Bluff to the south, which is clothed with green hills, providing protection from ocean winds, separating the sea from Durban Bay.
Visitors arriving or leaving by boat enjoy uninterrupted view across the central city, up to the residential Berea Ridge, where you can see its flowering trees in all the colours of the rainbow, and when proceeding through a narrow channel of the harbor between the piers and against the green backdrop of the Bluff.
You’ll find 3 marinas for yachting purposes, the main marina opposite Esplanade, served by both the Point Yacht Club and the Royal Natal Yacht Club, and the Wilson’s Wharf Marina, used by motor craft and the Bluff Yacht Club facility, in the Silt Canal near Bayhead, so as you can understand, the sea plays a vital role in this region. Not to mention the large number of other recreational activities one can take part in, from canoeing, kayaking, parasailing, fishing from boats and bird watching in the mangrove swamps – which is known as a world heritage site!
The idea of Durban as a port, dates back to 1824, when the first European settlers made a landing with the intention of setting up a trade post. It appears history has decreed that it was while off the KZN coast, and not Pondoland, that the Portuguese named the land they saw “Natal” in honour of the nativity. Since then ships called from time to time over several centuries, and it’s a mystery as to which honest merchantman or maybe pirate ship sheltered behind the protection of the Bluff.
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