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Pretty awesome:
Why engineers and the public love Umhlanga’s pier
Exceptional architecture and award winning engineering work have helped make Umhlanga’s whale-bone pier a favourite.
Our peerless pier
Every once in a while someone comes along and builds something that not only serves its purpose well, but looks spectacular into the bargain. For an example of just such a happy union of style and substance, consider the Umhlanga Stormwater Outfall Pier. The eThekwini municipality commissioned the whale-bone pier (as it’s more popularly and romantically…
Where eagles dare (and nudists bare)
In the last blog in this series, we followed the trail atop the dune at the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve. From the end of the dune, some 200 metres distant, lies the Ohlanga River mouth. It happened to be open to the sea. But often a sandbank closes it. It’s a mostly natural process (artificial…
Feeling twitchy – why bird lovers flock to the lagoon
The Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve is not just for the birds – and bird lovers. Its dunes, forest and reedbeds are a good bet for a visit when the beaches get too hot or if the wind blows up.
Special stars:
Rockwood to reopen
Snappy footwork, including crew and cast doubling up in the kitchen, has put Rockwood Theatre in the pound seats for a 15 July reopening. The performing arts has been among the sectors hardest hit by lockdown. So news that the curtains were soon coming up at the popular Sibaya supper theatre venue should add to…
Crocodile Creek snaps back into action
There can’t be many unreformed killers on the FunShine Coast enjoying themselves more than Umthakathi. “He came from the Nseli River. He killed a 12-year-old boy,” says Sean Le Clus of the big male Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) menacingly near his feet. “It’s a fantastic sentence for murder. You lie around the pool and get…
Top tour guide on the road ahead
Form is temporary, class is permanent, sports journalists are wont to say whenever a much-loved team or star player slumps. Greg Garson, the Umhlanga Tourism committee member, tour operator and national guide, is hoping the same holds true for him. Of course, the sporting analogy is a little wide of the mark. It’s not like…
Dark days call for dose of the good stuff
If you ever doubted the addictive powers of a fresh cup of coffee, you probably haven’t seen the line at Daily Dose. We’re talking about the little wood-clad kiosk above Umhlanga’s Durban View Park, which reopened in early May to the considerable approval of its clientele, new and old. These being lockdown times, the caffeine-lovers…
Winter’s golf coast
with the most
Umhlanga really is a swinging little place. And if you love golf then around about now is the sweetest of times to be in the unofficial capital of KwaZulu-Natal’s FunShine Coast. Just ask the organisers of the IGT Pro Tour, which was scheduled to return to these shores from mid May through to July next…
Koan and the barbarians:
Durban’s Japanese Gardens puzzler
In the previous blog in this series on the Durban North Japanese Gardens, we reached the top of a slope overlooking an outdoor chapel and eastwards to the sea… ‘But at my back,” as the poet told his coy mistress, “I always hear, time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” Our stroll in the gardens had gone…
Bench-marking the Japanese Gardens
In the previous blog, on the eve of lockdown, the Durban North Japanese Gardens was proving to be an agreeable place for picnicking. A number of polished concrete tables and benches have recently been installed in the Durban North park. And your correspondent found one near a pond and was sitting, eating sushi and counting…
Picnic time for the Teddy’s boy:
provisioning a Japanese Gardens jaunt
Ah, the quiet pleasures of a walk in the park. And so it was last week, on the eve of lockdown, as opportunities for public recreation began to disappear like so many rolls of twin-ply from the supermarket shelf, I returned to the Japanese Gardens. As returns go, it was not one of those nostalgic…
Some sanity in a humpty-dumpty world
Social distancing – now there’s an oxymoron for our times. But If you happen to be on the FunShine Coast and need to be far from the madding crowd and want a pleasant, airy place for a light meal, then try the Hingham Nursery Tea Garden. We asked our waitress Sharon Makope, a cheerful young woman…
Yebo, gogo!
Why Granny’s Pool is doggone cool
They wrote a song about Copacabana. Patriotic Aussies reckon Bondi’s a beaut. Waikiki is wonderful, if eroded. While a stretch of shore on Phi Phi Islands became so famous after it featured in a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the Thai government had to limit visitor numbers. Some beaches seem to capture the popular imagination. Then…
Plenty to trumpet about: why disabled folk love Umhlanga
Accessible, family-friendly facilities, good shopping and its nearness to the airport make Umhlanga a hit with disabled tourists. That’s according to Jennae Bezuidenhout, of Access2Africa Safaris, an award-winning tour operator that caters for the needs of people with disabilities and their families. Bezuidenhout, who was speaking to Umhlanga Tourism ahead of International Wheelchair Day, on…
Valentine’s Day: hot tips for an Umhlanga date
Marketing and tourism go together like, well, love and marriage. So it’s only right that scores of FunShine Coast hospitality businesses have been quick to climb on the Valentine’s Day promotional bandwagon (or should that be, carriage?). The romantically inclined, or the just plain anxious to placate, are being inundated with offers – spoilt for…
Roll with it baby!
Club will bowl you over
A heresy to say it here perhaps, but Umhlanga’s beaches aren’t for everyone. And even ardent holidaymakers sometimes tire of the seaside and seek alternatives. Chris Carter reckons the answer lies at the local lawn bowls club. Carter, coach of the Umhlanga Bowling Club, says the sport offers a winning way to hone your physical,…
Marvellous mangroves!
Come see Beachwood’s battling crabs, cool trees Talk about the survival of the fittest. If you need a neat reminder of how competition shapes our natural world, take a tour of Durban’s Beachwood Mangroves. Assuming it’s low tide at the reserve, at the mouth of the Mgeni River, expect to witness pitched battles among its…
ECR adds Drive to festival fun
Umhlanga Tourism welcomed East Coast Radio to its offices on Thursday, on the eve of the 2019 Summer Festival. And ECR Drive show presenters Mags Westerhof and Bongani Mtolo were rich in their praise for the area’s charms. Mtolo told listeners he was green with envy when he arrived in Umhlanga Rocks to prepare for…
And the beat goes on:
Big hitter back for Umhlanga’s carols concert
Most everyone loves the old Christmas favourites and yule certainly be getting that at Umhlanga’s Carols under the Stars concert. But to mix things up a bit, and back by popular demand, will be beatboxer Mikey Mathaba. Mathaba, who is among an impressive lineup of artists set to entertain at the Thursday 19 December concert,…
New line-up: sweet swans join Umgeni Bird Park
Durban avian zoo welcomes four cygnets Forget what you’ve heard about ducklings and how poor, little and plug-ugly they are. Only the hard of heart could deny their charm. And when it comes to baby swans, well the little fellas are positively button cute. If you want proof of this, get yourself down to the…
Durban Brewing Company comes to the party
Take a craft brewery tour in the heart of the FunShine coast “Who doesn’t like a Hot Blonde?” asks Barry Schoeman. Who indeed, but we haven’t called at the Durban Brewing Company’s pint-sized brewery in Redhill for locker room chat. No, we are here to hear about the beer they make including one that bears…
Wonder Market whips up a feast
Umhlanga Tourism tries out some of the fine fare at the lakeside market. ‘Merhaba (hello there)…. Türkiye çok guzel,” I say, digging deep into the holiday phrasebook memory banks. Murat Oncel, looks up and smiles, one eye on me, the other on a lamb kebab he is busy singeing with a blow-torch. Yes, Turkey is…
Trailblazers: Wild times for Riverside runners
In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, the poet tells us. Or, in the case of your middle-aged correspondent, to outdoor pursuits and vague thoughts about getting fitter, and leaner, not merely meaner. The dark winter mornings are behind us too, so quitting the bed is less of a…
Flippin’ good time for whale watching
And so we bid farewell to a much loved visitor to these shores. Every September and October, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) begin leaving the East Coast of Southern Africa to return to their summer grounds in the Southern Ocean, where they feed on the rich abundance of small fish and krill, a shrimp like crustacean.…
Snow news is good news
Spring may have sprung on the funshine coast, as the marketing men love to remind us, but up on the hill things have taken a turn for the wintery. A new pleasure dome, Snow Wonderland, has opened at Umhlanga’s Gateway shopping centre. It will let funseekers experience, all year round, some of the delights normally…
By George, it’s the World Cup!
Where to watch it
Heck, these days you could probably watch the World Cup on your smartphone. But would you want to? Fortunately for fans visiting Umhlanga or its surrounds during the course of the rugby showpiece – from 20 September to 2 November – there are more agreeable alternatives. Here’s a potted selection to help you choose… A sharp…
From London with love:
parkrun draws ’em from near and far
Want to get out and stretch those legs; perhaps meet a few people from elsewhere in the country and beyond? Well then, give the Umhlanga parkrun (the organisers insist it is spelled without a capital) a whirl. The free timed fun event north along the promenade and back again, has proved a hit with locals and…
Umhlanga date for top comic
Globe-trotting comic Carvin H Goldstone will be giving his first solo KZN performance of the year at uMhlanga Ridge’s Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! on Saturday, 31 August. A son of the Durban soil, Goldstone combines a talent for observation, great storytelling skills and an infectious laugh. Umhlanga Rocks Tourism asked the big man about…
A melting pot of flavours as fests celebrate Women’s Day
Two festivals, sweet deals for dames dining à deux and a little pampering – just some of Women’s Day fare on offer north of the Umgeni on Friday, 9 August.
Houston, we don’t have a problem: concert to aid ABH
An internationally acclaimed tribute singer and two of the country’s best loved comediennes are on the bill for I’m Every Woman, a Sibiya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom fundraising concert in aid of the Aryan Benevolent Home (ABH). The Friday (July 26) iZulu Theatre concert stars Belinda Davids, a South African singer who has carved out…
Who killed whatshisname?
Doccie digs dirt on
UN diplomat’s murder
Who killed the second secretary-general of the United Nations and why after nearly 58 years should we even care? Two questions at the heart of Cold Case Hammarskjöld, an intriguing documentary showing at Ster Kinekor Gateway as part of the Durban International Film Festival. Swede Dag Hammarskjöld perished when his plane crashed in September 1961,…
An Awesome South African Gift Shop
In the spacious Pearls Shopping Mall in Umhlanga Rocks is a bright and colourful gift shop called AWESOME AFRICA. African – or more precisely South African – it definitely is. Most of the gifts on display are sourced and proudly made in South Africa. Now that really is awesome! ‘Supporting South African-made products should be…
Revive with Fleur De Lis Spa
You spend a frustrating amount of time in traffic each week. Your job and its deadlines take hours of hard work from you every day. In just one hour at Spa Durban the stress of those used minutes will be forgotten. Spa Durban is the home of Fleur De Lis Spa and El Elyon Day…
The Taste of Summer
La Cremosa is an Italian gelateria in Umhlanga. Well situated in the land of eternal summer (Umhlanga) La Cremosa occupies space next door to News Café on Palm Boulevard opposite the main entrance to Gateway Shopping Centre. This genuine Italian gelateria, run by Italians Mauro and Sandro, offers a typical Italian experience. Coffee and bakery…
Umhlanga Tourism Members Can Visit Monkeyland
Lara Mostert of Monkeyland KZN reported that the organisation, which is new to KZN, cannot function at 100% as they are not yet allowed to take members of the public on ‘monkey safaris’ for a fee. Until they are, they can offer free ‘monkey safaris’ to the trade. This means that anyone who works in…
Food to Drool Over
The winner of the Waitronathon held as part of Umhlanga Tourism December 2018 Festival was Nhlanhla Khoza of Beach Garden Café & Events. See more about this fun event here: https://bit.ly/2T6bfqz. Nhlanhla’s prize included R1000 cash for the speedster himself. The restaurant he represented also won a prize: a free half-page advert in the 2019…
Bliss on the Doorstep
I arrived at the Beverly Hills’ Mangwanani Boutique Spa just before 4pm on a Tuesday afternoon. I had booked a foot massage – one of my favourite types of treatment. There was a venue choice: either indoors in the airconditioned, fragranced shop, or outdoors in the gently billowing tented area. I chose outdoors. The outlook…
Miss Umhlanga 2018 is a Winner
Umhlanga Main Beach was hot and happening on Monday 17 December when dozens of beautiful girls took part in the tenth Miss Umhlanga Beauty pageant. With the ocean and sand as a backdrop, and a breeze to cool the 30-degree sunshine, the competition was fun and relaxed. Beachgoers pulled up their deckchairs and enjoyed watching…
Let’s Go Shopping
Eventors Kevin Ellis and Gareth Greaves are beginning to select books, clothes, toys and games to purchase for less privileged children over this festive season. Entry to participate in the Miss Umhlanga is R150 cash – which will go towards purchasing needed items for Umhlanga child-focused NGOs – supporting the season’s theme this year: It’s…
Calling all Waitrons!
The new kid on the block at this year’s Umhlanga Summer Festival is the first wacky ‘Waitronathon’, a feature event taking place on Sunday 23 December. The 23rd of December is the final day of the festival and it promises to end in great style. Waitrons from participating Umhlanga restaurants and hotels will make their…
Beach Fun at the Umhlanga Summer Festival 2018
The annual Umhlanga Summer Festival brings loads of family-centred holiday activities to Umhlanga for the 2018 festive season for visitors and locals alike, from 14 to 23 December. Understanding that the season is about goodwill, family and community, the theme for this year’s festival is It’s Cool to Care – with all aspects of the…
The Umhlanga Summer Festival 2018: It’s Cool to Care – About People
The annual Umhlanga Summer Festival brings a host of family-centred holiday activities to Umhlanga for the 2018 festive season for visitors and locals alike, from 14 – 23 December. Understanding that the season is about goodwill, family and community, the theme for this year’s festival is It’s Cool to Care – with all aspects of…
Umhlanga Summer Festival – Carols Under the Stars
Always a crowd favourite, the annual al-fresco Umhlanga Carols Under the Stars, takes place at the Granada Square in Umhlanga Rocks on Thursday 20 December from 6pm in the courtyard of the favourite shopping and dining destinations on the Umhlanga Strip. The concert is co-ordinated by Shelley McLean featuring a myriad special guests. The evening…
The Umhlanga Summer Festival 2018: It’s Cool to Care – About the Planet
The annual Umhlanga Summer Festival brings a myriad family-centred holiday activities to Umhlanga for the 2018 festive season for visitors and locals alike, from 14 to 23 December. Understanding that the season is about goodwill, family and community, the theme for this year’s festival is It’s Cool to Care – with all aspects of the…
Miss Umhlanga Beauty Pageant Summer 2018
The tenth Miss Umhlanga Beauty Pageant will take place on Monday 17 December 2018 on Umhlanga Main Beach, as one of the highlights of the Umhlanga Summer Festival programme. Registration is from 10.30am on the Millennium Stage, Main Beach, and the competition will run from 12 noon until 2pm. Winners will be crowned on the…
The Umhlanga Summer Festival 2018: It’s Cool to Care About Community
The Umhlanga Summer Festival 2018 was launched this week at the beautifully decorated Cabana Beach Resort conference room. Invited guests were treated to talking, music, dancing, singing and modelling – all by locals. Umhlanga Tourism is a Community Tourist Association and as such supports initiatives, creatives and organisations in our own back yard and the…
Need Some R&R?
Spa Durban, which has four branches in and around Umhlanga, is offering the most wonderful-sounding spring spa packages. Choose from: Spring Treat, Oh So Heavenly, Massage Spoil, Bud Blossom & Bloom, Spring Time Romance or Blissful Spring Time. The treats are aimed at couples, singles and even groups, and range in time from a ‘quick’…
It’s Cool to Care
The Umhlanga Tourism Summer Festival 2018 is just around the corner and this year’s theme is: Cool to Care. The popular Umhlanga Tourism Summer Festival will this year feature old favourites such as the Miss Umhlanga Beauty Pageant, Carols Under the Stars, and 10 days of beach fun. There will also be a relatively new…
Escape Hunt – Have Fun In (or Out)
WIN these super exciting prizes from The Escape Hunt Experience Durban – DUR, South Africa 1) 3 x GROUP experiences for 4 people 2) 2 x TEAM BUILDING experiences for 10 people. The Escape Hunt Experience is a fantastic global entertainment franchise offering unique ‘escape the room’ adventures with branches all over the world from Brussels…
Experience Korean
‘That’s it,’ I decided, ‘I’m going to become a vegetarian.’ I was enjoying my first taste of Korean food, at Glenashley-based restaurant, The Crazy Korean. The first course was a Pajeon, followed by a meatless Dol-sot Bi-bim-bap. The pajeon was a pancake about the size of a small dinner plate filled with spring onion, carrot and…
Gandhis Pass on the Legacy of Nonviolence
The rainbow nation Madiba named is looking somewhat refracted; the seven colours of the rainbow are not shining as one. So said Tushar Gandhi on a recent visit to Umhlanga, Durban, South Africa. Tushar and his father Dr Arun Gandhi were part of a tour group that recently took American tourists to a number of…
Good food, good restaurants, good company
Do you enjoy good food? Eating out? But have no-one to go with? Then sign up for a dining experience with DINE4SIX. I attended a DINE4SIX event recently and cannot recommend it highly enough. DINE4SIX is a platform through which people (six at a time) wanting to eat out can sign up for a restaurant…
FunShine Coast Champions
Okay so Umhlanga doesn’t have just anyone leading their campaigns. No, they have champions! Kevin Ellis, entertainer, style guru and Umhlanga Tourism’s Easter Festival host, is a dance champion. Kevin returned to South Africa on Wednesday 28 March struggling to carry the number of trophies he won at the 2018 European Championships in line dancing.…
Looking for Miss Beach Babe
Girls, it’s Miss Beach Babe time! As part of the Umhlanga Tourism Easter Festival a fun beauty pageant for girls will be held on Easter Saturday 31 March at Main Beach, Umhlanga. So, don your bikinis and get down to the Millennium stage at 11am for registration, 12pm to 2pm for the competition. Sashes, tiaras…
It’s Almost Easter Festival Time!
We have egg-citing news: it’s almost time for the Umhlanga Tourism Easter Festival! So hop along to the eggstravaganza being held on Easter weekend, Friday to Monday 30 and 31 March, 1 and 2 April, at the Millennium Stage, Main Beach, Umhlanga. Kids will be kept EXtremely busy with a host of EXciting activities like…
Treat Yourself to a Boat Ride
BY UMHLANGA TOURISM · PUBLISHED 24TH NOVEMBER 2017 · UPDATED 24TH NOVEMBER 2017 At 10.45am on a Thursday in October 2017 my husband and I arrived at CASEA Charters on Umhlanga Main Beach. We had signed up for a boat ride and – in my opinion – couldn’t have picked a better day. The weather…
Don’t let Frizzy Hair Keep You Away
BY UMHLANGA TOURISM · 8TH SEPTEMBER 2017 September is tourism month. Remember to use the hashtag #WeDoTourism in all your social media campaigns until the 30th! Mom, Amelia Meyer, bemoans letting frizzy hair and fear of bikinis keep her away from Umhlanga. With so much beauty to enjoy along our coastline and lots of things to…