Meet Andre at 645a and catch the sunrise over Indian Ocean. After I take my obligatory feet-in-a-new-body-of-water shot, we stash our stuff, grab some boogie boards, and promptly jump off the pier into the ocean. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in an ocean and I’m surprised and delighted to taste the watery salt. I forget how thrilling and relaxing it is to see a rolling wave approach and feel yourself rise and fall and it flows past, almost through you. Andre helps me catch a wave and I get to ride it all the way into to shore. Beeee-utiful. We catch some breakfast at a little beachside restaurant and chat about travel and life and all that’s good. After a quick tour of downtown Durban we part ways with the possibility of meeting up again when travels will bring me through Nairobi later this summer. Thanks again, Andre!

Hit a whole slew of talks and realize there’s a ‘Beach Party’ put on by the conference just a few hundred feet from my hotel. We’re greeted by dancers and we enter a huge tent with a huge buffet and two bars on the sand. Run into a few folks I know and spend a good chunk of time by the water eating and drinking with them. Check out the band under the tent that play American pop songs with an African beat and watch the academics turn it loose on the dance floor. By the end of the night us ant geeks have found each other and end up joining the lifeguards in a game of chuck-the-frisbee-like-plastic-chair-tops down the beach. After that gets old, I walk across the street and turn in for the night.