Tuesday, Day 87 - Apr 3 - 8am to 11pm, Richards Bay, South Africa

Richards Bay is one of South Africa’s largest harbors, but as cities go it is fairly young. It began life as a makeshift harbor, set up by Sir Fredererick Richards, after whom it is named, during the Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81. In 1935 the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was set up to protect the ecology of the area’s lagoon. In 1954 the town was laid out on the shores of the lagoon and proclaimed a town in 1969. The harbor was made a deep water harbor in 1976 to support the coal mining and other large industries that were developing in the area.

Besides the industrial aspect of Richards Bay, it is known as the tourist’s gateway to Zululand, once the mightiest of the sub-Saharan African Kingdoms. Richards Bay also has some of the most spectacular wetland scenery and pristine beaches on the north coast of KwaZulu Natal. This is the land of King Shaka and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve.
This is our third time in South Africa...we love this beautiful country. Richards Bay is a new stop for us and we are doing the second of three special World Cruise Events put on by 
Regent: “A Dinner in the Bush at Zulu Naya Park.”

Zulu Nyala Private Game Reserve is home to a wide variety of game, from majestic elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard to abundant plains game and over 400 species of bird life. It is a 1 ½  hour bus ride through the country side to Zulu Naya Park where we are to transfer into 4x4 open vehicles to continue with a short game drive to this special, unique, wilderness dinner setting to enjoy spectacular sunset views, sundowners and a scrumptious meal. After a delicious dinner, we will revel in the mystique of the African bush as we relax around a crackling fire and enjoy traditional Zulu dancing and music.
That was the plan but here is the reality!

We watch the sail in and then have breakfast. Two dolphins entertain us while we eat. The morning tours all run too close to our afternoon departure time so there is not much to do on the ship for those of us going on this event. We do ride the provided port shuttle into a shopping center but it is just a modern shopping center in the middle of an industrial town and we do not even get off the bus; just ride it back to the ship.

There are numerous curio stalls set up on the dock and they have a broad selection from which to choose. We find some Zulu, bangle beadwork as well as a carved piece that we like. Since the carving is wood, the ship requires us to surrender it until they can de-louse it. They do not want strange critters on the ship. We have heard that they place such items in a freezer for several days.  We expect it back in a few days and have a receipt for it.

We are to leave for the evening event at 3:30PM. At 3:15PM we report to the theater for our bus ticket. There are 190 of us going to the dinner plus assorted Regent staff. There are six 48-passenger buses and we draw tickets for #4. The first three leave fairly promptly, about 3:30PM, but there is some holdup for the last three buses. They don’t leave for another 15 minutes. The drive is supposed to be 1 ½ hours, but takes a bit longer. The country side is interesting with all the native villages so time passes fast.(Sorry pictures through dirty bus windows) We arrive at a main compound for the park at 5:30PM. Guess what? The sun sets at 5:45PM. With all us old people on the bus, they give us 15 minutes for a rest stop and then we reload the bus and are promptly halted by two trains stopped and blocking the road we need. We sit there for about 15 minutes before the crossing clears and we can proceed. At this point the last bus shows up and waits with us. The other bus of our three crossed the tracks while we were at the rest stop.

So, it is now 6PM and the light is fading fast as it does here in Africa once the sun sets.
We pull into a parking area where four of the six buses have already unloaded their people.  We climb into 4x4 safari trucks that seat 12 people in back on four benches and one more person riding shotgun with the driver. By now it is almost full dark. So, no game drive unless one has good night vision and knows what to look for. Carolyn does make out two hyaenas fighting and two other hoofed animals but it is too dark to tell what they are. How disappointing! 

The dinner spot is on a hill with a cliff and what appears to be a nice view out over the park in front and a small natural rock canyon to the back. There were sundowners and snacks at this spot for those that got here before the sun went down and we are told that the view was great, but with full dark no sundowners and no view either.

It was several miles into the dinner site and the party is in full swing and most tables are full when we arrive. Wine and empty canape plates are offered as we get off the bus. We pass in favor of finding a table with chairs that are not occupied. We score two chairs at a table where we know several of the people and are asked why we are so late. We are clearly offered red or white wine by the waiter. Dick asks for red and Carolyn white. The glass of red shows up and, when asked, the waiter says they do not have any white wine. Note: he is the same person who offered a choice of red or white a few minutes earlier. Carolyn then asks for a regular coke and it does show up in a can, no glass and no ice! This is not going well so far!

A glass of wine doesn’t last long especially when things are off to a less than wonderful start. Pablo, one of the Excursion Services people, is at our table and he asks for a bottle of red wine for the table (to smooth over ruffled feathers) which we receive promptly. Things are looking up. Another waiter, seeing the bottle of red, stops and asks if we would like a bottle of white also!  The table breaks into gales of laughter and we ask for the bottle of white which also appears promptly. This seems to break the ice and wine flows freely the rest of the dinner.

Dinner is being grilled over a wood fire in stone pits. The pits look well used and the food smells very good. But, they have 200+ people to feed and it is going to be a single buffet line! To make a long story short it takes over an hour for everyone to go through the line.  Our table has at least three people with mobility issues and this “forever” buffet line is not going to work for them. Pablo arranges for plates of food to be brought to our table and one of them is for Carolyn. We wind up sharing it. It is so dark one cannot really see what the food is but we think we identify chicken, pork and sausage with potatoes and some other vegetable. Some people are using their light on their cell phone to see to eat. We agree the food is just OK, not wonderful and can we have another bottle of wine? By now most of us have had so much wine we are laughing about the chaos!

There is some Zulu dance entertainment which involves drums and lots of yelling but it is on the other side of the arena from us. The lighting is very poor and there is no light on the dancers. We do not see much of it. 

Finally everyone is served and has had time to eat. It is time to move us all back to the buses and there are only so many safari trucks to do it. We are told that the buses will go back in convoy so don’t stampede to be first back to the buses. Jamie will send us to the trucks by tables; wait until he gets to your table. Seems as how the bus behind us not only got caught by the train with us, but also got a speeding ticket. So Jamie wants to play it safe and have the buses traveling together in case of a problem. A bus full of cruise ship passengers might look like a soft target late at night if the bus had a problem.

Jamie is calling people by table and the transfer goes fairly smoothly except there are a lot of people who are incapable of climbing into the back of the trucks and have to sit up with the driver. Carolyn is assigned a truck in which to sit up front and Dick climbs into the nearest truck with room and we are soon back at the buses, well dusted from the traffic moving back and forth. 

It is not long before we are ready to pull out in convoy for the ride back to the ship. Our trip is uneventful and we are back to the ship about 10:30PM.  We do learn later that one of the buses ran out of gas and did not get back to the ship until after 11PM.

At this point we think we will skip the third event. Since we only have a day in Buenos Aires we don’t want to spend it wasting our time waiting around while destinations get their act together, moving in a big group and then not having enough time allowed to really enjoy the event site or what food is served. These first two events have not been up to the standard of the one we had on the Circle South America cruise in 2011.

Time for bed; not particularly well fed but with a little more wine than is good for us. The ship finally sets sail for Durban after midnight