Blue Water Hotel, Durban, South Africa

It’s early, about 6:30 am. I’m on the seventh floor of the Blue Water Hotel. My balcony faces the Indian Ocean. I just watched the sunrise – from the west according to my watch. I wonder if crossing the equator has affected my watch. It was working properly in London. I guess it could be the change in polarity. I wonder if I program the correct longitude and latitude if it would read correctly.

I feel good; I must be jetlagged, but at the moment I’m fine. The trip was tiring – about thirty hours in all. I couldn’t sleep on the plane, and I was too tired to read. I watched movies. Five in all, Babel, Casino Royale, The Departed , The King of Scotland, and The Black Book. I missed the end to Casino Royale. I did spend a few hours writing on the flight from London to Johannesburg.

I slept about 4 hours yesterday after I arrived. Last night I went to bed around midnight with the intention of getting up around three. It didn’t turn out that way; despite the alarm clock I didn’t drag myself out of bed until about 5:30.

The sunrise was quiet, the sound of the ocean soothing. I had orange tea and waited for the sun and listened to the waves. I turned the air conditioner off, but within minutes the humidity and heat forced me to reconsider. It’ was only 6:30. I was planning on taking a dip in the ocean; I am not sure that I can. Lonely Plant advises you to only swim on protected beaches; they have the shark nets. Battery Beach opposite the Hotel has a beach house but I’m not sure if it is protected. I was surprised that I didn’t see anyone in the water yesterday – actually I didn’t see anyone, the beach was empty.