Durbs, Umhlanga, and The Green Lantern Inn
So this is mostly for the kids. An account of our recent trip to Kwazulu Natal for my Academy Conference this year. Putting it on my blog seems to be easiest way to send a lot of photos along with a fair bit of text, in the order I want it all.
Realized early on in the trip that “Betty” the GPS has some problems. I don’t know, perhaps she needs a full service or something, but she was waaaaay off with everything! We had pretty bad weather from Pietermartizburg to Durban, and we would never have found Christine’s house had it not been for her detailed emailed directions - which I might say were spot on and got us straight there without a single detour! Reg was still keen to follow “Betty’s” instructions but I vetoed that as soon as we hit the N2.
Silly me, I didn’t take a photo of Ms T - Christine’s Staffie (what’s with this family and ‘Misty’ names?). She is really old, fairly deaf and a bit blind, but very friendly and just loved the affection we gave her.
Christine’s house is lovely! Although walking through her garden I found a plant that looked like an olive, fingered it and asked her about it. “Oh that is highly poisonous.” She stated. mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:
Wingdings">L She has all sorts of rare plants growing in her ‘jungle’, and the edges of the yard are completely overgrown. But it works.
From the guest room upstairs there is quite a wonderful view of the sea and the ships coming in to the harbour, but rain was so heavy we couldn’t see a thing!
Went for dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant and had stuff I’d never heard of. Unfortunately they were sold out of “Kingfisher” Sean, but we did get to drink a Mango Lassi! Yum! I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the tastes but I was sitting with two mamby-pambies who can’t take ‘hot’ food. *snigger*
Mango Lassi! Delish!
Sean and Henna do you recognize any of this food??
Played Hayley’s CD in the car and Christine was soooooo impressed and we left her a copy.
That night Durban and Umhlanga area had terrible rain damage and according to statistics 10 people lost their lives during it. A train slid into the Umgheni river and several people drowned.
Christine cooked a full breakfast INSISTING that she does so for herself every morning. Hmmmm. It was delicious though too, and I loved a jam she had made from a local unusual fruit (not the poisonous tree!)
The next day Reg dropped me at the conference venue in plenty of time though and went off to do his own thing. Which turned out to be not very successful as the weather and local natural disaster did make getting around difficult.
We stayed in the Road Lodge in Umhlanga with is right across the parking lot to the Gateway Mall. Reg checked us into the hotel and after the seminar closed for the day we took a walk through the mall. Found a Gloria Jean’s coffee shop!! Yay!! Lifesaver!
This was just some interesting cow in the mall. :)
Gloria Jeans coffee! yay!
The Mall also has that waterworld park, and Duane, i thought you would appreciate this : -
Look at rule number 10. He-he!
Dinner that night was at restaurant called Sevruga. Delicious food, ate waaaay too much. Dad and I were stuck one end of the loooong table and we didn’t have a chance to do any moving around of places to talk to other people. Oooh this year Anita Hollis was missing because…..she had been invited to the Hobbit premier in the UK, with her brother!!! I hope she has some photos!
Second day of conference went smoothly and it looked like weather was clearing up. We ended half an hour early which was wonderful as Reg wanted to get us going on the road - to at least get half-way back to Bloem before dark.
I’d booked us in at a place called “The Green Lantern Inn”. Had asked advice of Brenda as to where a good half-way point place to stay would be. She recommended “Lala Nathi”. Sounded good and I tried calling. There was no reply. I kept at it, found them online and sent an email, and eventually called Telkom to see if they perhaps had a faulty line. Telkom was useless and could not tell me one way or the other, nor was I getting any reply from my email. Sooooo….started looking around for somewhere else. Brenda recommended another place, but in the meantime Reg had found, in the Sunday papers travel section, an editorial about an old place at the top of Van Reenen’s pass, in the town of Van Reenen, that had quite a history attached to it, and told me to try them.
They answered my call, I booked. We mentioned to Brenda and Jeff that we were staying at The Green Lantern Inn and were greeted with a horrified “Noooooooooooo!!!” from both of them! So you can imagine we were somewhat nervous as to what we would find.
Pulling up to the front, it had none of the crispness we had seen in the photo accompanying the newspaper article. But it was obvious some plastering and repainting was being done so that is why it looked a bit of a mess. Reg was ready to try somewhere else straight away! But, I thought, let’s give them a chance! I went in, and well, the pictures will speak for themselves!
Reception.
Was greeted by a friendly Bull terrier cross who I later found out was named Duzi. Duzi had his own chair behind the rickety looking Tudor-style reception desk, and could often be found curled up there sleeping.
Duzi on his chair behind the reception desk.
What a warm greeting we got from new owner’s Bill and Gail. He produced a check-in ledger the style of which I had not seen in probably 30 years. Check-in is still all done by hand! You write across this 36 inch book and sign in the last column. Quaint!
There was a younger couple (well, younger than us, OK!) sitting in two of the chairs in the large lounge/reception/foyer area. Gail immediately did introductions and we found these two folk had first come to the Green Lantern 21 years ago just before they got married, and this was a trip down memory lane for them. They weren’t staying though - they had booked at a place called “The Caves” which is apparently quite unique accommodations built in to some caves, some 10 miles in from the road.
Bill showed Reg where to park the car and took him to our room, while I had a look around. In the bar I met previous owners Lew and Marie, who are still there helping with the transition.
I just loved this place! I think because it reminded me so of my childhood. Specifically late 1960’s when we had first arrived in South Africa and were doing a fair bit of traveling around to get to know the country and surrounds. Specifically coming to mind were our trip up to the Vic falls, must have been 1967. The places we stayed at en-route were no different to this! Like I’d stepped into a time-capsule that had never left the 1960’s. Also reminded me of my years at Settlers Agricultural High School. The town of Settlers, Nothern Transvaal, had a train station, a garage, a post office, a local store, and the Settlers Hotel - where parents used to stay whenever they came up to visit. The Green Lantern is right out of those days! I felt right at home.
Marie is inordinately proud of what she has achieved over the 21 years they have had the place. She proudly told me that the bar was bare when they bought, and all the ‘collectables’ were added over the years. There is not a nanometer of wall that does not have an old business card, sports t-shirt, or piece of kitch bric-a-brac on it! And pride of place is the old Rhodesian flag. Even the music they had piped through the public areas was directly off Springbok radio circa 1960’s. All the popular tunes that used to play on the radio back then. I loved it! Reminded me of Sundays at home, radio playing, roast cooking, the rustle of the Sunday Times in my Dad’s hands. Talk about déjà vu! Talk about blast from the past! I just sat in the pub, sipping my beer, and soaking it all in (and after two beers, singing along!).
Did a quick math calculation though (which as you know for me would never actually be ‘quick’) and finally realized that if Marie and Lew had bought 21 years ago, that took us only back as far as 1991. I spent the rest of the time wondering how, even in 1991, they thought a bordello red and pink dining room jam-packed full of velveteen, and Victoriana porcelain, was stylish? (Oh goodness, and all that on grey-blue Ozite flooring!)
Reg had several conversations with old and new owners at various times during our stay. So interesting the find out all the back stories, histories, the reasons behind, what brought them to selling / buying etc. Apparently what is now a pool room used to be an officer’s mess in the Boer War. That is interesting. The new owners don’t want to do too much and as Bill puts it “We don’t want to pretend to be what we aren’t”. But they are concentrating on repainting and fixing some of the rooms.
Dinner was basic - we had steak and chips (some of the best chips I have had in a long time!) - and well, their menu is basic, hearty, comfort food. It came out quickly and hot, and yummy. Although with the low occupancy (there was only one other check-in in the book for that night) I found out that Marie cooks, and then freezes most of the meals. So not ideal.
Another member of the Green Lantern family was asleep on one of the chairs in the foyer/lounge area as we headed to our room for the night. A lovely grey cat who looked just like Smokey and who is called….wait for it….Misty! As apparently she had come in one misty night, and just stayed.
Light was pretty dull in the whole hotel, and I only had my cell phone (and the Blackberry curve does not have a good camera) so most of the photos just didn’t show much. At times like this I would really have preferred better camera capabilities. Ah well…next phone will definitely make sure I get a good camera.
Our bed was new, I think, and very comfortable (Gail told us they had to replace a few of the beds - and I think we got one of the new ones). While the room, décor, and bathroom were old, everything worked well. It was wonderful to have NO TV in the actual room! But, you kids may never have seen this; each room had a little box, attached to the wall, the size of a medium speaker, with press-in buttons - a hotel room radio. Yup in the ‘old days’ these used to pipe some local radio stations into the room. And at The Green Lantern Inn, they still do!
After a very good night’s sleep, Duzi came in to say good-morning! Happy to see us, tail wagging, he had a sniff around at all our stuff then took himself off after Reg as he went to put some of our bags in the car.
Not much choice for breakfast. A full cooked one, or nothing. No muffins, cereal, porridge, fruit. So we ordered the cooked breakfast. Eggs done to perfection! All in all very tasty.
I for one really enjoyed our stop-over! And would certainly go back there for another stay some time!
Headed off to Bloem at about 08:30 and made good time till “The Cabin” where we decided to stop for a snack. I had a hankering for a nice slice of cake, after our savoury breakfast, but alas, they don’t serve cake there!!
But we had a nice hour break and bought some things, and then hit the road….along with the bad weather again! It poured down the rest of the way to Bloem. As you can imagine, me not happy. But we made it home OK, and fall well.
And that was our trip!
Realized early on in the trip that “Betty” the GPS has some problems. I don’t know, perhaps she needs a full service or something, but she was waaaaay off with everything! We had pretty bad weather from Pietermartizburg to Durban, and we would never have found Christine’s house had it not been for her detailed emailed directions - which I might say were spot on and got us straight there without a single detour! Reg was still keen to follow “Betty’s” instructions but I vetoed that as soon as we hit the N2.
Silly me, I didn’t take a photo of Ms T - Christine’s Staffie (what’s with this family and ‘Misty’ names?). She is really old, fairly deaf and a bit blind, but very friendly and just loved the affection we gave her.
Christine’s house is lovely! Although walking through her garden I found a plant that looked like an olive, fingered it and asked her about it. “Oh that is highly poisonous.” She stated. mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:
Wingdings">L She has all sorts of rare plants growing in her ‘jungle’, and the edges of the yard are completely overgrown. But it works.
From the guest room upstairs there is quite a wonderful view of the sea and the ships coming in to the harbour, but rain was so heavy we couldn’t see a thing!
Went for dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant and had stuff I’d never heard of. Unfortunately they were sold out of “Kingfisher” Sean, but we did get to drink a Mango Lassi! Yum! I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the tastes but I was sitting with two mamby-pambies who can’t take ‘hot’ food. *snigger*
Mango Lassi! Delish!
Sean and Henna do you recognize any of this food??
Played Hayley’s CD in the car and Christine was soooooo impressed and we left her a copy.
That night Durban and Umhlanga area had terrible rain damage and according to statistics 10 people lost their lives during it. A train slid into the Umgheni river and several people drowned.
Christine cooked a full breakfast INSISTING that she does so for herself every morning. Hmmmm. It was delicious though too, and I loved a jam she had made from a local unusual fruit (not the poisonous tree!)
The next day Reg dropped me at the conference venue in plenty of time though and went off to do his own thing. Which turned out to be not very successful as the weather and local natural disaster did make getting around difficult.
We stayed in the Road Lodge in Umhlanga with is right across the parking lot to the Gateway Mall. Reg checked us into the hotel and after the seminar closed for the day we took a walk through the mall. Found a Gloria Jean’s coffee shop!! Yay!! Lifesaver!
This was just some interesting cow in the mall. :)
Gloria Jeans coffee! yay!
The Mall also has that waterworld park, and Duane, i thought you would appreciate this : -
Look at rule number 10. He-he!
Dinner that night was at restaurant called Sevruga. Delicious food, ate waaaay too much. Dad and I were stuck one end of the loooong table and we didn’t have a chance to do any moving around of places to talk to other people. Oooh this year Anita Hollis was missing because…..she had been invited to the Hobbit premier in the UK, with her brother!!! I hope she has some photos!
Second day of conference went smoothly and it looked like weather was clearing up. We ended half an hour early which was wonderful as Reg wanted to get us going on the road - to at least get half-way back to Bloem before dark.
I’d booked us in at a place called “The Green Lantern Inn”. Had asked advice of Brenda as to where a good half-way point place to stay would be. She recommended “Lala Nathi”. Sounded good and I tried calling. There was no reply. I kept at it, found them online and sent an email, and eventually called Telkom to see if they perhaps had a faulty line. Telkom was useless and could not tell me one way or the other, nor was I getting any reply from my email. Sooooo….started looking around for somewhere else. Brenda recommended another place, but in the meantime Reg had found, in the Sunday papers travel section, an editorial about an old place at the top of Van Reenen’s pass, in the town of Van Reenen, that had quite a history attached to it, and told me to try them.
They answered my call, I booked. We mentioned to Brenda and Jeff that we were staying at The Green Lantern Inn and were greeted with a horrified “Noooooooooooo!!!” from both of them! So you can imagine we were somewhat nervous as to what we would find.
Pulling up to the front, it had none of the crispness we had seen in the photo accompanying the newspaper article. But it was obvious some plastering and repainting was being done so that is why it looked a bit of a mess. Reg was ready to try somewhere else straight away! But, I thought, let’s give them a chance! I went in, and well, the pictures will speak for themselves!
Reception.
Was greeted by a friendly Bull terrier cross who I later found out was named Duzi. Duzi had his own chair behind the rickety looking Tudor-style reception desk, and could often be found curled up there sleeping.
Duzi on his chair behind the reception desk.
What a warm greeting we got from new owner’s Bill and Gail. He produced a check-in ledger the style of which I had not seen in probably 30 years. Check-in is still all done by hand! You write across this 36 inch book and sign in the last column. Quaint!
There was a younger couple (well, younger than us, OK!) sitting in two of the chairs in the large lounge/reception/foyer area. Gail immediately did introductions and we found these two folk had first come to the Green Lantern 21 years ago just before they got married, and this was a trip down memory lane for them. They weren’t staying though - they had booked at a place called “The Caves” which is apparently quite unique accommodations built in to some caves, some 10 miles in from the road.
Bill showed Reg where to park the car and took him to our room, while I had a look around. In the bar I met previous owners Lew and Marie, who are still there helping with the transition.
I just loved this place! I think because it reminded me so of my childhood. Specifically late 1960’s when we had first arrived in South Africa and were doing a fair bit of traveling around to get to know the country and surrounds. Specifically coming to mind were our trip up to the Vic falls, must have been 1967. The places we stayed at en-route were no different to this! Like I’d stepped into a time-capsule that had never left the 1960’s. Also reminded me of my years at Settlers Agricultural High School. The town of Settlers, Nothern Transvaal, had a train station, a garage, a post office, a local store, and the Settlers Hotel - where parents used to stay whenever they came up to visit. The Green Lantern is right out of those days! I felt right at home.
Marie is inordinately proud of what she has achieved over the 21 years they have had the place. She proudly told me that the bar was bare when they bought, and all the ‘collectables’ were added over the years. There is not a nanometer of wall that does not have an old business card, sports t-shirt, or piece of kitch bric-a-brac on it! And pride of place is the old Rhodesian flag. Even the music they had piped through the public areas was directly off Springbok radio circa 1960’s. All the popular tunes that used to play on the radio back then. I loved it! Reminded me of Sundays at home, radio playing, roast cooking, the rustle of the Sunday Times in my Dad’s hands. Talk about déjà vu! Talk about blast from the past! I just sat in the pub, sipping my beer, and soaking it all in (and after two beers, singing along!).
Did a quick math calculation though (which as you know for me would never actually be ‘quick’) and finally realized that if Marie and Lew had bought 21 years ago, that took us only back as far as 1991. I spent the rest of the time wondering how, even in 1991, they thought a bordello red and pink dining room jam-packed full of velveteen, and Victoriana porcelain, was stylish? (Oh goodness, and all that on grey-blue Ozite flooring!)
Reg had several conversations with old and new owners at various times during our stay. So interesting the find out all the back stories, histories, the reasons behind, what brought them to selling / buying etc. Apparently what is now a pool room used to be an officer’s mess in the Boer War. That is interesting. The new owners don’t want to do too much and as Bill puts it “We don’t want to pretend to be what we aren’t”. But they are concentrating on repainting and fixing some of the rooms.
Dinner was basic - we had steak and chips (some of the best chips I have had in a long time!) - and well, their menu is basic, hearty, comfort food. It came out quickly and hot, and yummy. Although with the low occupancy (there was only one other check-in in the book for that night) I found out that Marie cooks, and then freezes most of the meals. So not ideal.
Another member of the Green Lantern family was asleep on one of the chairs in the foyer/lounge area as we headed to our room for the night. A lovely grey cat who looked just like Smokey and who is called….wait for it….Misty! As apparently she had come in one misty night, and just stayed.
Light was pretty dull in the whole hotel, and I only had my cell phone (and the Blackberry curve does not have a good camera) so most of the photos just didn’t show much. At times like this I would really have preferred better camera capabilities. Ah well…next phone will definitely make sure I get a good camera.
Our bed was new, I think, and very comfortable (Gail told us they had to replace a few of the beds - and I think we got one of the new ones). While the room, décor, and bathroom were old, everything worked well. It was wonderful to have NO TV in the actual room! But, you kids may never have seen this; each room had a little box, attached to the wall, the size of a medium speaker, with press-in buttons - a hotel room radio. Yup in the ‘old days’ these used to pipe some local radio stations into the room. And at The Green Lantern Inn, they still do!
After a very good night’s sleep, Duzi came in to say good-morning! Happy to see us, tail wagging, he had a sniff around at all our stuff then took himself off after Reg as he went to put some of our bags in the car.
Not much choice for breakfast. A full cooked one, or nothing. No muffins, cereal, porridge, fruit. So we ordered the cooked breakfast. Eggs done to perfection! All in all very tasty.
I for one really enjoyed our stop-over! And would certainly go back there for another stay some time!
Headed off to Bloem at about 08:30 and made good time till “The Cabin” where we decided to stop for a snack. I had a hankering for a nice slice of cake, after our savoury breakfast, but alas, they don’t serve cake there!!
But we had a nice hour break and bought some things, and then hit the road….along with the bad weather again! It poured down the rest of the way to Bloem. As you can imagine, me not happy. But we made it home OK, and fall well.
And that was our trip!