WITH its warm weather, friendly smiles and top-notch recreational activities, Durban has lured Kurt (86) and Lotte (82) Klingler, to its sandy beaches for the past three decades.
The couple, who hail from Frankfurt in Germany, have been travelling to South Africa and habitually spend six to seven weeks at the Oyster Box Hotel in uMhlanga from where they take the time to visit Durban’s attractions, such as the Valley of a Thousand Hills.
The charismatic explorers have travelled across the globe, including to Venezuela, Colombia, parts of Europe and China, but have always remained fond of South Africa and Durban specifically.
“We have made so many friends here during our travels. It doesn’t really feel like a holiday – it is more like coming home. The weather is so amazing here and people are also very friendly. There are just so many things to love about Durban,” said Lotte.
Lotte, who is also known as the Pearl Queen, is one of the few people who have been lucky enough to find, on two occasions, pearls while eating oysters at the famed uMhlanga hotel.
However, the Klinglers have not always been this fortunate. The travel bugs’ exciting life together began shortly after the Second World War, when Lotte was 18 years old and Kurt 22. They met at a ball after two mutual friends set them up on a blind date.
At that stage Kurt was working hard to restore his father’s factory, which had been brought to a staggering halt during the war. He had just returned to his home country after years of suffering as a prisoner of war.
Lotte recalled how desolate her home town had been after the war. “Many buildings had been completely destroyed and knocked to the ground, and while we did not have such a hard life as my husband as a soldier, I remember how frightening it all was and how little opportunity there was in our country. But we all persevered,” she said.
Today the couple, who married in 1956, is nearing their 60th wedding anniversary, and are showing no signs of giving up on the travelling craze.
While their current stay in uMhlanga is drawing to a close they are already planning their return to one of the warmest and laid back cities in the world, Durban.
