Thursday 18th December 2025
The alarm went off at the crack of dawn and not being sure of airport requirements left the hotel at 0600hrs, collecting our breakfast boxes on the way. Apart from a couple of “U” turns along the way oops!!! We were there within 10-minutes, returned the hire car, checked in, and no queue as we were so early, and waited!!!!!
The flight was on a small jet, and it was very comfortable taking a little over an hour to get to Durban International airport; a big difference from the port Elizabeth airport. Our bags came through very quickly and we headed to the EuRopcar office to collect our car and hope we don’t suffer the same issues re locking the car🤞🤞.
Arriving at our hotel , 4-hours before regular check-in was going to be fun, but what luck, our room was ready, yeah. We are both tired and it’s raining so very happy we could get straight in. This afternoon we have a pre-booked high tea so rested in our room until the time arrived.
By the time we headed to the “Oyster Box Hotel” for an afternoon “high” tea the weather had cleared up, no rain though cloudy. We headed down to the beach for a quick “gander” then back to our pre-booked afternoon tea.
The Oyster Box Hotel in Umblanga, (Durban) began as the “Oyster Lodge” built n 1863 serving as an navigational aid. The new owners transferred into a tea garden in 1952 and then a hotel in 1954 and it became famous for its seaside charm and red and white hooped lighthouse nearby. In 2006 the Oyster Box changed hands and between 2007-2009, A significant rebuild took place, blending original features (like the grand entrance and tiles) with modern luxury. In 2009 the hotel reopened, retaining its iconic 1950s charm with 5 star luxury.
Just walking through the security entrance with barriers and into the formal front gardens oozed luxury and as you walked through the impressive entrance with about 6-doorman on hand and all dressed smartly in old “colonial styled” uniforms just confirmed it; in fact we felt decidedly underdressed!!!
We were escorted to the where high tea takes place then escorted to our table, and at this point was glad Janet had pre-booked us a table, it was very busy.
Looking around the opulence and the food that was laid out for patrons to help themselves and encouraged to indulge in was pretty spectacular, needless to say we did our best. Fine bone china was used throughout, servers cleared an empty plate to encourage you to start again, hot, and cold savoury’s, sushi and cakes of all descriptions were waiting to be enjoyed!!!! The whole procedure was accompanied by a pianist.
After a couple of hours of “gross indulgence”, we waddled back to our hotel feeling decidedly fat; what have we done???
Back in our room we did nothing but moaned about what we had just done😤😤. We will have to fast (ha ha) tomorrow; and just like the lions we’ve seen after a big meal, curled up and went to sleep!!!