#Wednesday Walk - At the Umhlanga Lighthouse

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

All the photos that I would like to share with you today were taken on our recent walk in Umhlanga.

If you haven't read any of my posts yet, Umhlanga is located just north of Durban, on the east coast of South Africa.

I would like to use the Lighthouse in Umhlanga as the theme for today's post though.

In my first photo, you can see the Umhlanga Lighthouse with the city of Durban in the background.

I took these shots while I was standing on the Whalebone Pier.

Zooming out, to show you more of the rocky beach between me and the lighthouse. The building that you can see to the right of the lighthouse, is the Oyster Box Hotel. It's a popular hotel among the rich and famous. Royalty such as Prince Albert and Princess Charlene, and also Prince Harry has spent some time at the Oyster Box Hotel during their visits to South Africa.

More focus on the beautiful scene (in my opinion) of the rocks below me, looking out over the ocean, while still keeping the lighthouse in the picture as the main theme.

We took a walk up north and later, as we returned, I took this shot.

This is just below the promenade, in the area where you can get acces to the beach, and also from where they get access to the beach for launching boats into the water.

From here I took this shot of the lighthouse being visible behind the Whalebone Pier. It was from the Whalebone Pier that I have taken the first couple of shots in this post.

From here, we passed the Whalebone Pier and walked right up to the Umhlanga Lighthouse.

Approaching the lighthouse on the promenade.

Getting up close to the lighthouse.

Sitting down on the side of the flower bed, with the Oyster Box Hotel behind me, I took the next shot of the entrance to the lighthouse.

Just below the lighthouse is an interesting information board showing some interesting facts about the lighthouse.

Some facts about the lighthouse as per the information board:

• The Lighthouse was completed on 24 November 1954.
• It was built to replace the Bluff Lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor.
• Construction took 4 days and 19 hours.
• The lighthouse cost R23 838.00 to build.
• The circular concrete tower is 21 meters above the beach.
• There are 95 steps to the top of the lighthouse.
• The fully automatic lighthouse flashes every 20 seconds and has a range of 24 sea miles.
• The Oyster Box Hotel is the 'keeper' or custodian of the lighthouse with status reports sent from the hotel to the Portnet Lighthouse Service in Durban Harbor.

Other interesting facts as per the information board:

• Not only does the Umhlanga Lighthouse stand guard over some of southern Africa's most treacherous waters, but it has become an iconic and much-loved symbol of Umhlanga Rocks and Durban.
• Have a look at the windows of the lighthouse... Can you see that they are not perfectly aligned? This is because the concrete rings of the lighthouse were made off-site and when assembled they were not lined up exactly. We think it makes it even more beautiful!
• With a focal plane height of 25 meters, the lighthouse is topped with a static red light that acts as a distance safety marker for anchoring ships - if a ship can see the red light it means it has dragged anchor and is too close to shore!

My last photo for today, I took while I was standing on the beach, looking back at the lighthouse.

Behind the lighthouse, you can see the end of one wing of the Oyster Box Hotel (to the left) and the Beverly Hills Hotel to the right.

And that's it for today, folks.

Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!