Things To Do in Durban BeachfrontSA Sugar Terminal Tour
Miscellaneous Sight Seeing Durban
Where? 25 Leuchars Road, Maydon Wharf, Durban Harbour, Durban
When? Daily at 08h30, 10h00 and 11h30.
Closed on Fridays.
How? Call +27 (0)31 365-8100
How much? Price on request
Overnight? Stay at accommodation in Durban Beachfront, in KwaZulu Natal
Not that we're suggesting for a moment that you encourage your children to eat any more sugar, but this is one tour that is at once interesting and fun for the whole family.
Head down the M4, past Maydon Wharf, as if driving to the old airport, and you will pass Durban's sugar terminals just after you leave the spaghetti interchange at Albert Park – you cannot miss them; three enormous arched silos (nothing like corn silos) house more than half a million tons of sugar.
If the tour is similar to the school tours of the 1970s, you will get to stand in one of the terminals on the bridge up in the roof and scream as loudly as you can to see if you can rock the mountain of sugar even slightly.
Drive up the other coast north of Durban and you will begin to understand that a lot of Durban's early economy was built on sugar. The hills around Umdloti and further north are covered in sugarcane.
Durban's Sugar Terminal is the largest in southern Africa and apparently the most advanced in the world. It handles and moves as much as 800 tons of sugar an hour, loading from the silos onto cargo ships in Durban's harbour and then to all parts of the globe.
The 45 minute tour includes a video presentation and, if it is anything like the old days, your children will leave with a little bag of brown sugar (don't quote us on this). Make sure to book ahead.
