I recently visited KZN and stayed at Trancedi in Pietermaritzburg and Grey Goose Farm in Newcastle. I know the Natal Midlands like the back of my hand, haven't studied there in the late 90's and early 2000's. It was fascinating to note all the changes that have taken place since the last time I was there. In Scottsville, the gaming and movies area at 50 Durban road is no more, beckoning the question: What do students do for fun nowadays?
The new Midlands mall seems to have taken over, I doubt people still find going to the Cascades fun. I sound so bitter about these changes. It's all for the good of the city I suppose.
I had an unfortunate mishap with Debonairs Pizza while in Pietermaritzburg. I always order online, because I hate carrying cash around. This is South Africa after all. So, I was given a choice of three restaurants from which to order and the one I selected informed me that they do not deliver to the area where Trancedi is. Would have been simpler if they'd just rejected my order and prepayment.
Three hours later, the food came. Now I don't know about you but I have a food curfew.
The heat was unbearable in Pietermaritzburg but one wouldn't dare book in Bulwer or Donnybrook, the weather might be cooler there but not everybody is accepting of black guests. Let's face it, some people have only ever interacted with black folks as maids and garden boys. We can't fault them for that. We can't even call them racist, or can we?
So we worked in Bulwer by day and made the trek back to Pmb to sleep on our Pmb leg of the trip.
Newcastle was our second and final leg. Excited at the prospect of cooler weather we made the 500km trip, ever so mindful of the speed traps that KZN is famous for. We stayed at the Grey Goose Farm there, about 5km from the CBD. Ostriches, rabbits, zebras and people coexist in harmony at Grey Goose! Please checkout the TripAdvisor review I wrote on the farm :). What bothered me was not being able to connect Newcastle to the rest of KZN in my mind's map. I can tell you where it is in relation to Ermelo and Standerton (mpumalanga in other words). I need to travel the north-western parts of KZN frequently, to acquaint myself fully and enrich my internal GPS.
