Day 25, Year 6 St. Lucia and iSimangaliso
Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Weather: Mostly Overcast But NO Rain
Location: Tuzi Gazi Marina, Richards Bay, South Africa
At 7 am, Peppe and Bob of Far Niente met us in the parking lot and off we went for our adventure in St. Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park. The wish of no rain came true for today, but unfortunately we didn’t have sunshine and blue sky. And that was really a shame because we saw so many beautiful animals and many of the photos are a little grainy and washed out because of the conditions.
As we were crossing the bridge over the estuary as we entered St. Lucia, we saw our first wildlife of the day-a very long crocodile and a couple of hippos. We then walked the iGwala Gwala 1.5 kilometer trail in the town of St. Lucia that took us almost two hours to complete because we stopped so many times to see birds. By 10:30 am we entered the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park and were delighted to see so many mammals-zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, bushbuck, waterbuck, red duiker, nyala, and vervet monkeys. This was the first time Peppe and Bob have been out of Richards Bay since arriving, so they were delighted to see their first South African wildlife. We saw exotic birds, big and small, and birds of prey. But by the time we exited the Park four hours later, we had not seen hippo since our early morning sighting. So we went to the Ski Boat Club for lunch because it was recommended by Ken and Jean on Renaissance 2000. They went there for lunch last year and reported watching hippos while eating. We gave it a try and were not disappointed. There were lots of hippos. As soon as we finished lunch, we had to get back into town to pick up our tickets for the 4 pm Hippo and Croc boat tour. That was another good pick for seeing birds and hippos, but the crocs were scarce today. We saw two fish eagles and one them was particularly magnificent.
We left St. Lucia at 6 pm and were back on Windbird by 7:30 pm. It was a great day but both of us are exhausted. Tomorrow is one of those bake bread and do the laundry days. We will also have to get ready for our trip to Kruger as we will be spending all day Saturday in Richards Bay watching the 14th Annual Zulu Dance Competition. The fun just keeps on coming.
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| 101118 Day 25 South Africa–St. Lucia |
