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The weather today was amazing, not a cloud in the sky.
We decided to head down to the beach and rent out a surfboard.
The walk down was a lot less stressful with 3 guys, and we walked straight to the beach which was not nearly as far, then along the seafront until we reached the 'surfer area'.
Durban beach is separated by piers running 100m or so out from the beach, a popular spot for fishermen. They also act as an eddy against the serious current so the surfers can paddle out without being engulfed by the strong waves.
Renting a board for £3each was a pretty good deal and pleased with my deal I hit the water first. Not paying much attention and going between the two piers I soon found myself in trouble. The waves were a lot larger than they looked from the beach, I was wiped out several times just trying to get past the breaking waves. Before I knew it I was getting washed towards one of the muscle covered piers!! I couldn't swim hard enough on the board to combat the current and there would be no hope off the board. The waves were breaching at an angle now, and hitting the pier, I had no choice but to grab hold and either abandon the surfboard or push myself along using the pier risking getting smashed against it by a breaking wave. Quite a scary place to be, I ended up managing to push really hard off the jetty and surf a huge wave at an angle away from the pier which put me in water shallow enough to wade out. Needless to say i didn't stand up! My feet were all cut from crashing and pushing against the muscles and barnacles on the pier. Once again the sea has shown me how pathetic and weak I am!
Exhausted back on the beach, Tom was keen to try, but didn't listen to my warnings and headed for the very same place. He was taken out past the piers and found himself having to work really hard to get back. One local fisherman on the end if the pier was apparently shouting him advise and was really concerned for him! He ended up the otherwise of the pier and got back to the beach via many craving waves... After Mike saw our blood he decided to give it a miss..
Mike and Tom fell asleep and I was reading a book. All witting 3m of each other and no one else within 15m of our sunshade. Whilst mike slept he kept his wallet and phone by his head, from the corner of my eye I saw a couple of black kids wrestling with each other and they fell between mike and I. Next thing I know Mike has been woken and shouts, "he's got my wallet"! I jumped up and chased, he knew what he ha coming to him so dropped both his phone and wallet and ran off. No Money was taken, but still a reminder that were still in Africa!
Local S.A guy said we should have grabbed him regardless and beat this kid up since pain is all they understand!
That night we went into Florida road again but decided we'd buy a bottle of brandy and coke between us, which was all I spent that night. Very nice bars, and club, upperclass place. There was a hen party which we spoke to, the hen turned out to be getting married to SA rugby player who plays and lives in Bath, Butch James!!
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