Thirty minutes away from Durban lies a little town called Hillcrest which is perfectly normal, thank you very much. It is the last place you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because this town just doesn’t hold with this nonsense.

But in a little centre off the main road, lies a little piece of the magical world of Harry Potter called The Shire. The Shire is a cafe that transports any Potterhead into the world of Potter.

The Shire has a beautiful window that holds wands from Ollivanders and a Firebolt which immediately makes you think of Sirius Black.

The shop owner who’s a Slytherin uses the Sorting Hat to sort you into your Hogwarts house. And like that, you enter the magical world.

One of the walls of the shop is dedicated to all the wands in the series. Here you can see Harry’s, Ron’s and Hermione’s trusted wands as well as Dumbledore’s Elder wand amongst others. Next to the wall of wands is a cabinet with potions, pictures and artefacts from the series.

The opposite wall is filled with (expensive!) merchandise from the series. There’s a range of scarves, books, water bottles and even candles that every Potterhead needs. There’s even a little Honeydukes cart with sweets from the Hogwarts Express.

The bathroom of this cafe is filled with intricate details from the series including the toilets leading to the Ministry of Magic and the mirror in the bathroom asking “Have you seen this wizard?”.

By far the best part of this store is the ceiling. There’s golden snitches and the flying keys from Philosopher’s Stone on the ceiling. It also has pages from the book hanging down and the letters that Harry failed to catch.

We bought some Butterbeer (0% alcohol) and it was delicious! It even came with a Harry Potter marked biscuit.

The Shire is definitely something any Potterhead should stop to visit on the way to Durban. It also made me want to get home and re-read all seven books!