Following more than a week of being knocked around by a nasty virus, it was time to venture out once again to reinvigorate the soul and get that holiday feeling back again. This time, we chose the beautiful spot of St Lucia, about a 45 minute drive north of Richards Bay.
St Lucia is at the southernmost point of the iSimangiliso Wetlands which is South Africa's first Natural World Heritage Site. And what an amazing place it is! Contained within the park are 5 different ecosystems which means an absolute abundance of amazing wildlife. We stayed in the small town of St Lucia and ventured into the park and surrounds by day.
Being the unofficial Activities Co-ordinator for our time here in South Africa (Simon is the official one), I take some pride in finding quality accommodation for our little weekend sojourns. I have to say I picked a winner this weekend in the Wetlands Guesthouse (a tip of the hat to Trip Advisor here, for their useful recommendations and feedback). Not normally ones for the B & B style, we were very impressed and will keep our eyes out for something similar next time!
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While we didn't need the mossie nets, they looked absolutely gorgeous and felt positively colonial. William slept with his around his bed and loved it! Lying in bed at night listening to the incredible downpour of rain outside was amazing. |
On arrival, we settled into our room (above) and then made our way to the lounge for a beer, where our host (Colin) proceeded to tell us all about the region and what we 'must' get up to while in the area. The owners were so welcoming and informative and bent over backwards to ensure we had a great time - including giving us a basket of snorkelling gear for our drive up to Cape Vidal. Breakfast was fantastic too, and we set out on our day's adventures with full tummys and lots of plans.
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| Breakfast on the balcony! |
Beaches and Cape Vidal
Heading north from St Lucia you drive through a stretch of land between the eastern shores of Lake St Lucia and the coast - it is much like driving through a safari park with an incredible array of wildlife waiting to be spotted. At various points you can take off road tracks and little diversions to waterholes and beaches. Being our first proper trip away in the new Landy, we ventured left, right and centre to test out the features of our new vehicle, and I'm pleased to report, it did not disappoint.
Even William got a guernsey behind the wheel, and was very excited to get through a section of track 'without crashing'. Since then, he considers himself somewhat of an expert in all things vehicular, which is a source of some amusement to those in the car who actually have a driver's licence.
At over 180m, the vegetated sand dune above is the second highest in the world (after Fraser Island). The dunes here consist of valuable mineral sands, however cannot be mined due to the World Heritage status of the region. Closer to Richards Bay the dunes cop a bit of a flogging by one of the big companies in town - Richards Bay Minerals. Titanium and rulite are a couple of the treasures within. Apparently, even the Zulus of yesteryear used to smelt the sands to make weapons.
Cape Vidal is about 30km north of St Lucia. It was named in 1822, after Lieutenant Vidal, captain of the British exploration ship the HMS Leven. It's now a beautiful little spot with great camping facilities and a beach for snorkelling and fishing. Intrepid 4x4 and fishing enthusiasts even manage to launch their boats off the beach - much to the detriment of the resident fish population, as pictured above.
Antelope
Although not the poster boys of the travel brochures, the antelope are actually quite beautiful to watch and we have been surprised by the number of different types we have found. We spent a lot of time on this trip identifying the various species and are now getting pretty good at telling the difference between each one. A few curve balls in the form of wildebeest and waterbuck kept us on our toes.
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| Impala |
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| Kudu (female) - yes, they are as big as it looks in this photo. |
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| Waterbuck - here's a little identifying tip. The waterbuck looks like it has sat on a toilet seat with white paint on it (right). While we didn't get close enough to notice, apparently these animals absolutely pong, which is enough to keep the lions at bay! |
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| Call me Dian Fossey if you like, but we are even getting into identifying animal spoor... This one's from a female nyala. True. |
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| Okay, okay, so this is not an antelope, but they're my favourite animal, so I can't help but post the occasional shot of them. Wouldn't it make a beautiful floor rug? |
And so...
...I haven't even begun to tell you about the main attraction of St Lucia yet - the HIPPOS. So I will get on to writing the next post, by which time you should have realised my poor taste (and black humour) in relation to African floor covering options and steel yourself to read on.
