Swing across the Stadium

It's great to have new things to do in Durban and the "Big Rush Big Swing" across the Moses Mabhida World Cup Football Stadium is a must... just down the road from our Guesthouse.

This is the world's only Stadium swing and the largest swing of any kind anywhere.

You can jump into the void 106 metres above the World Cup Football pitch and swing out in a huge 220 m arc under the iconic arch.

All equipment and instruction is provided by their qualified staff and you can Book Online at R595 per person. Check out their website at BIG RUSH.

Durban shaping up - QM2 arrives

Durban is shaping up in time for the World Cup in June. The Queen Mary 2 arrived in the harbour this morning for a quick visit and I shot around taking some photos.

The grass around the World Cup Stadium - the Moses Mabhida Stadium - is growing nicely as the surrounding landscaping is greening Durban, one of South Africa's greenest cities.

The posters on the street lamp-poles proclaim Durban as South Africa's warmest city for the World Cup, and that is true. Being a coastal city with the warm Indian Ocean, Durban's winter temperature is in the 15c - 22c range whilst football fans in Johannesburg and Cape Town arelikely to be in cold 10c weather during the World Cup.

We still have some Guesthouse space, particularly around the Brazil vs Portugal game, so bookings can still be made online or by email to durbanstadiumview@gmail.com.

Environmental initiative for 2010 World Cup

A number of initiatives have been launched to address 2010-related environmental concerns.

Many of the world’s top players, including Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo will be wearing shirts made of plastic bottles at the World Cup. Nike has confirmed that shirts for the nine national teams it sponsors would be made from polyester recycled from used bottles retrieved from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites. The sports gear giant says they will keep players cooler and drier while reducing energy consumption in manufacture by 30%, compared with normal polyester.

Meanwhile, more than 1200 rubbish bins with a soccer theme are being placed around SA’s main airports as part of a recycling project to promote the World Cup’s Green Goal campaign. The bins, in the colours of the national flag (with lids resembling soccer balls), will help people separate their waste and facilitate recycling. The aim is to eventually have 100 000 of these bins throughout the country the next two years.

Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban have also planted thousands of trees to capture the carbon dioxide blamed for global warming. And FIFA will soon be able to buy green electricity, produced by the Darling Wind Farm in the Western Cape for the World Cup.

In other developments, SA’s electric car, the Joule, is in production in Port Elizabeth for use during the World Cup.

100 day Countdown

It's less than 100 days to the FIFA World Cup Football in South Africa and the countdown has begun.

Here's guesthouse co-owner Dave in the Guesthouse Pub with a replica of the official World Cup Match ball named "Jabulani". This means "Celebration" in Zulu. Following a technologically advancing path over the years, "Jabulani" is the greatest of all World Cup match balls and is set to cut a striking appearance at South Africa 2010.

When the ball was introduced on the day of the 2010 World Cup draw in Cape Town, some of the World's best players gave "Jabulani" the stamp of approval. Germany captain Michael Ballack said, "Fantastic, the ball does exactly what I want it to."

The construction of the ball includes eight thermally bonded 3-D panels, which are spherically moulded. Tests have shown that the ball provides exceptional accuracy and very stable flight. It will, however, be fractionally faster at altitude than here at sea level in Durban.

Brazil vs Portugal 25 June

We've got tickets to the Brazil vs Portugal game in Durban.

This means I need to brush up a little on my history, not that I don't know the Portuguese origins in Southern Africa.

The early Portuguese explorers, Bartholomew Diaz, followed by Vasco da Gama were looking for an alternative route to bypass the Turkish blockade of the Silk route that linked Europe and China and passage by sea around Southern Africa was the key.

It was Vasco da Gama who succeeded in going all the way around the South African coastline making Portugal the first European nation to reach the Far East by sea in the late 15th Century.

With this illustrious background, we will be proud to host the Portugal Football team in Durban for their epic clash with Brazil and we are delighted that we managed to get these tickets.