CONTINUING with our virtual explorations of southern Africa’s urban spaces, let’s head for KwaZulu-Natal this week and wander along the coastline, north of Durban to a small resort called Umdloti.
We visited it recently at the invitation of friends who have just finished renovating a magnificent beachfront flat. They wanted us to see it and to enjoy the gorgeous sea views it offers before they put it on the market. However my stay in the town was as much about childhood memories as sea views.
The last time I had visited this picturesque seaside resort must have been way back in the 1960s. In those days, if you lived in the Gauteng area, holidays and seaside were synonymous. Bushveld or berg holidays were not even considered and every year my family would bypass South Africa’s inland attraction to join the annual migration to the sea.
Our choice of holiday destination was usually Umhlanga Rocks, then an unsophisticated village set in lush coastal bush. Over the decades I have watched the bush make way for large-scale development and the town transform into a ritzy, upmarket, extremely popular holiday resort it is today.
We never actually stayed in Umdloti but every year one of our Umhlanga holiday highlights was a visit to this sea-splashed dot on the map. You couldn’t really call it a town then. I don’t even remember it having a shop. There were a few beach cottages hidden away in thick natural vegetation and a little hotel of sorts but its main attractions were its rocky shores and the safe and pleasant swimming in the pretty, tranquil rock pools.
One thing hadn’t changed. There still only seemed to be only one entrance into the town, leading from the freeway through sugar cane fields and what looked like fairly pristine national bush. It soon became evident that the town’s conservancy was pretty active and was doing a good balancing act between development and maintaining the integrity of as much natural environment as possible.
There seemed to be a few little roads giving access to a bush-covered ridge overlooking the sea but all the action was to be found alongside the North Beach and South Beach Roads. These two roads – cul de sacs really – branched off from the Main Road leading into town and snaked along a rocky, golden coastline that was even more beautiful than I remembered.
We did a slow drive along North Beach Road looking forward to our friends’ apartment block and I struggled to reconcile my childhood memories with the attractive, modern, well developed holiday resort that Umdloti had become. The dot on the map I remembered seemed to have disappeared completely beneath many layers of urban development. Then, a little later, we went for a walk along the attractive walkway lining the shore.
Suddenly I recognised a striking rocky outcrop overlooking the pool where we used to swim and, squeezed among the apartment blocks, I noticed a couple of beach cottages that looked familiar. Like a mirage, my childhood Umdloti shimmered briefly into view but disappeared again behind the crowds of people on the walkway and the row of cars cruising along the beachfront road.
There was no sign of the quaint little old hotel, but it had been replaced by quite a few pleasant looking eateries, one of which, our friends told us, attracted diners from all over KwaZulu-Natal.
The crashing of the waves on the rocks didn’t keep us awake that night and early in the morning we awoke to a magnificent dawn chorus of bird song from the thick vegetation lining the bank behind the apartment block.
Our time was limited so, after a hearty breakfast, we said goodbye to our friends and set off along the congested North Beach Road past the pool where we used to swim. Contemplating the crowds of beach goers, walkers, runners and strollers and the bumper to bumper Sunday traffic I found it hard to image the quiet little backwater that was the Umdloti of my youth, I think there were times when we’d had the whole beachfront to ourselves.
A little more of the old Umdloti emerged when we took a quick drive along South Beach Road and discovered some lovely old beach houses, most of them set in shady, sub-tropical gardens. Once humble holiday homes, they had been spruced up and turned into smart private homes and bed and breakfast establishments. As with the rest of the town, this attractive section was enhanced by well cared for natural vegetation.
We turned round, drove back to Main Road then slowly left town. Umdloti had grown up and changed almost beyond recognition and yet a bit of the old North Coast magic remained. At heart, Umdloti was still a peaceful seaside village, totally lacking in airs or graces. Its character hadn’t really changed at all.
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