I ♥ Bluff Because ...

I ♥ Bluff

Hi, I’m Deon from Netcoral Guest House on the Bluff, Durban.

Bluff IS BEST KNOWN FOR its cli­mate, the weather is warm and pleas­ant all year round, watch dol­phins play­ing in the surf or whales in the winter months close to shore. The Bluff is known for its great fish­ing spots, and excel­lent surf­ing con­di­tions. The beaches are pro­tec­ted by shark nets and life­guards on duty.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Cooper’s Lighthouse, with its beau­ti­ful red and white tower, or on top of cave rock which is also rated one of the best surf spots in the world, if you take a 20min drive to Stainbank you can have your pic­ture taken at the castle where a guided tour is also available.

THE BEST early morn­ing PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN OF the mag­ni­fi­cent sun­rise over the ocean at Netcoral Guest House. Continued

Top things to do in Durban

Things to Do in Durban

Think Durban, think a humid, sticky cli­mate that hits you the minute you step off the aero­plane. Think gar­dens that appear to grow on their own and inev­it­ably end up look­ing like out-of-control sub­trop­ical forests, seem­ingly as a res­ult of noth­ing greater than the power of suggestion.

Durban brings to mind end­less miles of white, sandy beaches (Durban lays claim to the only surf­ing museum in the coun­try), the Golden Mile, and beach­front high rise flats that have re-emerged as the 'place to stay'. Perched on the top of a ridge is the city's uni­ver­sity in the gentri­fied and aca­dem­ic­ally artsy neigh­bour­hood of Glenwood, whilst on the other end of the ridge you'll find the fash­ion­able Florida Road, where a few res­taur­ants and choice shops are a bet­ter place to hang out by far than the centre of town.

Business has escaped the city centre choos­ing the north coast's Umhlanga as its home, where hugely ambi­tious malls nestle in amongst a flurry of new and mod­ern town­house com­plexes and busi­ness parks with sea views, and an avenue of green aca­cia trees. Continued

Centre Court restaurant and coffee shop — A review

Centre Court

Located in the heart of the Pavilion Shopping Centre in Westville, Durban, The Centre Court Restaurant and Coffee shop has been around for some time and even though I’ve eaten there a few times in the past, a recent visit was as enjoy­able as always. The vari­ety of cuisine avail­able at Centre Court is truly amaz­ing. The res­taur­ant offers diners quite pos­sibly the most extens­ive array of foods I’ve ever seen on a menu. Burgers, a vari­ety of chicken dishes, cur­ries, toasted sand­wiches, steaks, lamb chops, lasagnes and pas­tas, pork spare ribs, prawns, schnitzels, stir fry’s, tramezzini’s and a selec­tion of wraps are all avail­able. Continued

Enter the Mr, Miss or Junior Miss uShaka Marine World competition

uSh­aka King & Queens!

If you're in tip-top shape and love the sea, splash out and enter the biggest and best beauty pageant in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Mr, Miss or Junior Miss uSh­aka Marine World competition.

A firm favour­ite on the uSh­aka Marine World Calendar the ‘pageant’ is now into its sev­enth year and is gain­ing pop­ular­ity all the time.  Nestle has joined the com­pet­i­tion as a spon­sor and with their help, uSh­aka is offer­ing massive prizes for this year’s com­pet­i­tion, includ­ing up to R50 000 in cash.  Not a bad incent­ive to enter this year is it. Continued

Gugulethu Tenors at uShaka Marine World

Gugulethu Tenors

Saturday February 19^th might see the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup on the sub-continent and closer to home the Super 15 rugby tour­na­ment kicks off with the Sharks play­ing the Cheetahs but don’t be caught short and find your­self without a ticket to the very impress­ive Gugulethu Tenors.

uSh­aka Marine World will be alive with the sound of music on Sunday even­ing as this Afro-operatic pop sen­sa­tion enter­tains Durbanites from the Upper Deck.  The ten­ors will only be at uSh­aka for Sunday night Continued

Top 10 Dive Sites in South Africa

Dive Sites

Our team got together and wanted to bring you a top 10 that was both exhil­ar­at­ing and refresh­ing. It is a new year with new res­ol­u­tions hav­ing been set and a great time for new chal­lenges. We cast our minds to the gor­geous coast­line that sur­rounds us here in beau­ti­ful South Africa and took a closer look at the dive sites on offer. Although the chal­lenge was to only men­tion ten loc­a­tions, the pur­pose of this is to get the soul explor­ing and open your hearts and minds to what is on offer.

There is some­thing here for every­one from the adren­aline junkie to the more exper­i­enced diver, up for a chal­lenge, and even some sites for begin­ners. This is our take on the top ten Dive Sites in South Africa, we hope you enjoy and are inspired to keep exploring!

1. Raggie Cave / Shark Alley — Aliwal Shoal, KwaZulu Natal
2. Sardine Run — Protea Banks, KwaZulu Natal
3. Uniforms — Sodwana Bay, KwaZulu Natal
4. Hotspot — Sodwana Bay, KwaZulu Natal
5. Avalanche Reef — Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
6. Haerlem Wreck — Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
7. Storms River Mouth — Mossel Bay, Garden Route
8. Paquita Wreck — Knysna Heads, Garden Route
9. A Frame — Simonstown, Cape Town
10. Clifton Rock — Cape Town

Continued

Sardine Run at Protea Banks — a video

If it’s an adren­aline rush you want, I am sure this is one exper­i­ence you would want to check out ... The Greatest Shoal on Earth, as it has been named, sees thou­sands of vis­it­ors flock to the KwaZulu Natal east coast to wit­ness the annual migra­tion of mil­lions of sardines. Hundreds of thou­sands of dol­phins, sharks, whales and seabirds fol­low the impress­ive body of sardines as they move along the coast... Continued

uShaka takes to the skies this summer

uSh­aka takes to the skies this sum­mer (in part­ner­ship with Legend Aviation) with the launch of their heli­copter sight­see­ing ser­vice from the new heli­port at uSh­aka Marine World.  A heli­copter is based at the heli­port seven days a week from 9am to 5.30pm.  Flights are weather per­mit­ting, understandably.

There are a vari­ety of flights with flips ran­ging from a quarter of an hour or up and down the Dolphin Coast from a price of R290 per per­son.  You will get to watch ships enter the har­bour or have a look at the new beach prom­en­ade from a new per­spect­ive ... Continued

Bicycle Enthusiasts, the second chapter

Riding bicycles to com­mute and for pleas­ure is gain­ing pop­ular­ity in South Africa and we pre­vi­ously asked local bicycle enthu­si­asts to tell us a little more about their bicycles and their favour­ite routes to cycle in the coun­try. You can see the pre­vi­ous art­icle here or read on for more ...

Our first Q&A is with MD and founder of BEN Bikes, the group help­ing to raise aware­ness about cyc­ling in South Africa, who provide bicycles to impov­er­ished com­munit­ies and who offer Township Bicycle Tours to the pub­lic and 0ur second inter­view was with Casey Powell, a young Doctor based in Durban, who loves cyc­ling so much that she star­ted a bicycle tour com­pany with her hus­band, ‘on the side.’ Continued

Sky Dining at uShaka Marine World

Dinner in the Sky

uSh­aka has a treat in store for Durbanites or Festive Season hol­i­day vis­it­ors to this KwaZulu Natal city.  Have I got your atten­tion and more import­antly do you fancy din­ing 50 metres above the ground?  Well then Sky Dining at uSh­aka Marine World is the place for you.  Twenty two diners seated around a table sus­pen­ded from a crane is what Dinner in the Sky is all about — a very unique exper­i­ence avail­able at uSh­aka from December 15^th to January 5^th.  Obviously the ‘venue’ is not under­cover and the exper­i­ence is there­fore weather per­mit­ting, but you can be guar­an­teed of sen­sa­tional views when the weather is good ... Continued

For Bicycle Enthusiasts ... South Africans and their bicycles

Riding bicycles to com­mute and for pleas­ure is fast gain­ing pop­ular­ity in South Africa. We asked local bicycle enthu­si­asts (Bloggers and Twitter per­son­al­it­ies) to tell us a little more about their bicycles and about their favour­ite places to cycle ... Read about what Thaya, Natalie, Lauren and Brandon have to say about their favour­ite cyc­ling routes ... Continued

Dolphins by Starlight at uShaka Marine World

The word is out — uSh­aka Marine World is host­ing Christmas this year!  ‘Dolphins by Starlight’ takes place from December 14^th – 18^th at the uSh­aka Marine World dol­phin sta­dium — this spec­tac­u­lar show is def­in­itely the way to get your Christmas fest­iv­it­ies off to a good start ... Continued

The Drakensberg Boys Choir perform at uShaka Marine World this weekend

There doesn’t seem to be much rugby on the box this week­end and Sharks and Western Province fan take a break before the Currie Cup Final next week­end so if you are in the coastal town of Durban and haven’t made any plans for Friday or Saturday night count your­self very lucky and get your­self to Computicket as soon as possible.

This week­end the skies above uSh­aka Marine World will be alive with the sounds of music as some of KwaZulu Natal's best known per­formers; the Drakensberg Boys Choir and the Seaworld Dolphins unite for their first ever joint musical extra­vag­anza at uSh­aka Marine World’s Dolphinarium! Continued

Familia Flamenco at Catalina Theatre in Durban

Familia Flamenco

If you’ve been read­ing this blog for a while you’ve prob­ably real­ised that I am a bit of a nut when it comes to pro­duc­tions, shows, con­certs and so on. And what is so great about liv­ing in South Africa is that there is such a vari­ety of tal­ent and oppor­tun­it­ies for us to expand our cul­tural experience.

This time it is Dubans turn for a bit of heat when Familia Flamenco with Linda Vargas who is return­ing after more than five years of not being on stage. Dance lov­ers should look for­ward to this pro­gramme that will be presen­ted with flair by the acclaimed Flamenco Dance Company Vargas ... Continued

moyo opens new venue in Durban

moyo uSh­aka Pier

A brand new venue has opened at moyo Ushaka Pier. Situated right at the very end of the pier, the new venue is a new double storey glass build­ing that offers 360 degree pan­or­amic ocean views, as well as glimpses of the beau­ti­ful Moses Mabhida Stadium in the distance.

Already a firm favour­ite with local and inter­na­tional guests, moyo uSh­aka Pier is com­pletely unique in Durban and South Africa – as it’s the only venue to suc­cess­fully com­bine the balmy beach with authen­tic African cuisine and enter­tain­ment. And it is the closest guests can get to a cruise liner exper­i­ence, without leav­ing shore. Continued