PHEW! July holidays are over and done with and for the first time since having kids I’m a little bleak that we are back at school. A year ago the words ‘school holiday’ would have sent me into genuine heart palpitations. I just didn’t understand the moms who preferred school holidays. But now I get it. My boys are at an age where we can just get in the car without too much (more or less) drama and actually enjoy the incredible family offerings we have right on our doorstep. While some families managed to get away, we holidayed at  home this time around. Durban and the North Coast, officially ‘The warmest place to be’ with our mild winters making it my favourite time and place to holiday.
For starters, we have a world-renowned and rated surf contest right here on our local beaches! In our Winter, we can laze on the beach and watch world class surfing. This year we got down to watch one early practice session at the Billabong Pro. We bundled our troop up to catch the rising sun and were rewarded with dolphins leaping out from glistening waves amongst the surfers, like something out of a Disney movie. It had the desired effect on the visiting foreigners too! And then a free music concert on the beach, set against palm trees and a sunset. Again like something straight out of a movie…
A few other evenings, we could enjoy rugby on the beach with holiday makers and neighbours alike. Rugby on the beach getting sand between your teeth is about as hardcore as it gets here in Winter! Not to mention there is always a friend or two to be made or a reunion to be had on the sand dunes at Salty’s. We have this enormous privilege to raise our family here. I couldn’t dare ask for anything more.
If we didn’t know it already, we had a strong reminder again towards the end of the school holidays, when we had the great pleasure of hosting some American teenagers visiting out from the Seattle area. They laughed when we complained of the cold and teased that this is the same as their summer back home. They happily proclaimed one evening while we had sundowners at Salty’s beach that they could live here. For them – growing up on the beach , surfing and playing rugby on the dunes in Winter was pretty much as good as it gets. We then topped that experience off and took them to the Litchi Orchard Night Market where we feasted on flavourful offerings from the market stalls and relaxed on the lawn while live music notes drifted up to a clear, crisp and star-speckled night sky.
Not only do we have great options locally, but on an ‘off’ day, a quick visit to the city does the trick! We visited Ushaka and on another day, the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre to watch Winnie the Pooh. As something cultured and different to do, my little boys were enchanted. We were transported to the 100 Acre Wood where its quirky characters kept my boys on the edge of their seats, their 6 and 4 year old faces and eyes wide open with wonder. It’s definitely worth the visit if you’re looking for something a little further afield.
What better place to holiday than right here at home? We have everything, as I write this our American visitors are being taken to the Game reserves in Zululand. I’m jealous of course but there is nothing stopping us from doing the same quick day trip sometime soon… It’s not the ends of the earth or a 23 hour long flight to go and visit. How lucky are we to have the Bush, Beach and not to forget the Berg so close? Of all the places on the planet – I’m pretty glad that this place is where my family and I have been blessed enough to live.
