Saint Lucia

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Saint Lucia is like an Afrikaner fortress in the middle of Zululand. But the area is wonderful. There are five different ecosystems nearby: there's the Indian Ocean, rain forest area, savannah, wetlands, and one more I forgot :) The area is known for its hippos and crocodiles. The cool thing is that from town you take the road out of town and within a few minutes you're in the Great Saint Lucia Wetlands Park, with all of its hippos and other wildlife.

The first night I got there we went for a night drive in the park which is awesome. You can spot chameleons, different kinds of bucks, zebras, and hippos munching away at night, and look at the starry sky above while listening to the crickets chirp. The guy that did the drive was originally from England and his dry English humor was quite amusing. Plus he knew a lot about the area, which makes it a lot more interesting.

Caught in the act! A hippo muching at night.
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The next morning we went on another ride in the park which took us through different kinds of scenery. We saw some cool birds, flying grasshoppers and dung beetles, and more bucks, zebras, hippos in the water, and even one hippo out of the water -- quite unusual, but it was a cloudy day so perhaps it took a chance and went for a daytime munch.

We had lunch by the Indian Ocean which was beautiful. The waves were really wild so I did some body boarding in the ocean too - fun! During lunch, monkeys were all around waiting for the moment we'd turn our heads so they could climb down and steal our food. Pesky little animals!

A brave hippo venturing out of the water in the daytime.
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On Wednesday the Baz Bus was scheduled to pick us up around noon, so I just had enough time for another horse ride (I'd quite enjoyed the ride in  the Drakensberg) -- in the park. This was really cool -- you're riding and meanwhile you can see zebras and bucks all around (and have to watch out for the occasional kamikaze flying dung beetle). My horse (his name was -- very original -- Red, because of its color; the other horse was called White) was a lot more willing than the one in Drakensberg. We got back just in time for some food and then the Baz Bus arrived. Except the driver wasn't feeling well, so we waited an hour and eventually he mustered up the courage to drive us to Swaziland.