First of all we woke up in the wrong room. We had had to make a temporary move at supper time last night because, just as we were going out for dinner, our door lock broke. Helpful staff took it all apart and confirmed that it was broken, so we moved about half our stuff to another, admittedly rather luxurious, room. Well, that was OK but after breakfast today we had to quickly move back to our usual room so a new guest could move in to the posh one. Anyway, the main job of the day was to take the carnet (truck passport) to the shipping agent in Durban docks. The trusty GPS got us there. While waiting at traffic lights outside the city centre, a driver in front of us got out of his car and transferred his briefcase to the boot of his car. "Ooer!" we thought, and locked the doors. A good idea, because at subsequent traffic lights various vendors were ultra-keen to sell us a car phone charger or some colourful coat-hangers. It wouldn't have surprised me if they'd got into the car to try and achieve a sale!
The docks/port area is VAST. However, the trusty GPS did the job and we soon arrived at the rather plush offices of Wallenius Wilhelmsen shippers (very large and renowned company). Delightful staff but unfortunately the guy who should have been expecting us had "just popped out". We decided to wait, as a return trip would have meant braving the coathanger salesmen again. After about an hour of arguing about who should have the seat that looked out over the river, we were informed that our car had a flat tyre. Oh, lovely! Well, we thought we'd better meet our chap before we dealt with that. On enquiring whether he might now be around it turned out that he was, but had not been informed that we were waiting for him. Oh, well, he was delightful too, so it didn't really matter. Did the biz and wandered outside to attend to the tyre (not me, as obviously I am incapable of this type of practical task).
B put on the silly little spare and off we went to find "Outdoor Warehouse", hoping to also find lunch and a tyre place on the way. This we achieved. In a not very exciting-looking mall we found "Spice Kitchen" where B had a mutton roti and I had chicken curry and rice. All v.g. and ,much appreciated. Next the tyre, which was sorted quite easily for about £4 and on to Outdoor Warehouse, which was a thoroughly amazing camping and outdoor shop, selling all sorts of things that had been really difficult to source in the UK. B was particularly excited by the selection of high-lift jacks. None of it cheap, though. A 10L Karrimor backpack cost nearly £30 (we didn't buy anything). Still, we will be able to buy anything that we truly need, and more.
After that we spent a happy half-hour in the rush hour traffic, still refusing to buy coathangers, and returned to our guesthouse. Here we discovered that the wine in the honesty bar is low-alcohol, which was a disappointment for B, but probably a good thing in my case. It doesn't taste too bad at all. Sue.