Just a short slideshow of a recent tour around KwaZulu-Natal earlier in the year. Kwazulu-Natal Tour Slideshow: Shelldon’s trip to 5 cities including and was created with TripAdvisor TripWow! For more information about this tour or any of the other tours we offer, visit our site or contact us Read more…
Every now and again I get a call from visitors to our fabulous city about what there is to do in a day. I also get the same call from friends who had lived in the city their entire lives (shame on you!). So I’ve decided to to finally get round to posting what I’m hoping will be the “ultimate list of awesome things to do in Durban in a day!“.
Durban’s “Golden Mile”
Gardiner who originally arrived in South Africa and Durban specifically to spread the word of God, was not quite finished with his stint with the politics of the time. He promptly left the township of Durban for the Cape in order to ask Sir Benjamin D’Urban to take the area over as a colony and to appoint proper officials. After a false start which saw Gardiner having to return to Durban in order to avoid a native war, he was able to meet up with the Cape Colony Governor in Port Elizabeth on the 3rd December 1835.
View of Durban from the Berea.
Gardiner’s life at this point seemed to be progressing along at a pace he could only be satisfied with. He had a mission that was going strong, and had made numerous inroads with the local natives and Europeans at the settlement. There was one aspect though, that still needed to be tackled, and that was the safety of the settlement.
Gardiner Church Collage
At the top of Berea Road on the corner of Julia Road, not far from McCords Hospital, is a little cemetery and church that if you were to blink whilst driving past, you’d miss it entirely! Within the graveyard lies the remains of Julia, the 12 year child of Captain Gardiner. It’s here that the first mission in Durban was established, and here where the name “Berea” originated. Capt. Gardiner was a fascinating man, a man of contradictions who’s death was not only immensely sad but equally bizarre, and who’s time in Natal seems to have been conveniently forgotten in historical accounts of him. (more…)