After 2 amazing weeks in Sodwana Bay, we were all sad to leave but excited to be back in Durban again to check out the ‘marine’ part of Ushaka Marine Park. Needless to say, we stayed at the Happy Hippo Hostel so we could walk to the Park. We had planned to do a day of admin and a day at the Ushaka water slides and aquarium. The admin consisted of trying to mail a parcel home (couldn’t do it), check out amazing made-to-measure wet suits by Rob Allen http://roballen.co.za/product-category/wetsuits/ at The Dive Factory in Durban http://divefactory.co.za/. We decided not to get suits and carry them for another 6 months, nor be measured in case of body changes…. Se also had to drop off the car.
The next day was spent at Ushaka. The water was cold so we decided to sod the water slides in the late morning and early afternoon to enjoy the most heat. This turned out to be brilliant as the power shut down and the slides closed up. This part of South Africa (KwaZulu Natal) goes through something they call ‘load-shedding’ where the power just gets shut down for 2-3 hours, once or twice a day! We luckily got lunch just before the power died and then spent the rest of the day at the aquarium. Many people left due to the power outage so we basically had the aquarium to ourselves…
The slides were good but we have been to better Water Parks…The aquarium was really good with many rare fish and underwater creatures. We got to see two big moray eels fighting, seahorses, jellyfish, sea dragons, stonefish, as well as many other cool things. The three girls know their underwater fauna well and a local black couple followed the girls to get all their explanations and stories about each tank and its contents. The girls were great ambassadors of Ushaka Marine and the couple were well impressed and the parents were entertained and very very proud! The couple also sat with us at the dolphin show – Willow was lucky enough to get picked to be part of the show!!\\
The dolphins arrive …
