Saint Lucia

We had another long drive across the South African border to Saint Lucia. Saint Lucia is a coastal holiday town popular with South Africans all year round. We woke early the next morning for a safari in Hluhluwe iMfolozi National Park. Our driver Sam picked us up at 5am and he was a little bit of a crazy driver. The park was an hour away from our accommodation and Sam sped down the road as quickly as possible overtaking any vehicle in his way. After ten minutes Sam turned around and returned back to our accommodation as he forgot his park entry pass. This made Sam drive even faster to try and catch up the time he had lost.

Finally we arrived at the park and went looking for some animals. Luckily very quickly we found buffalo and rhinos close to the road. It was special to see the rhino had his horn attached in comparison to the rhino's in Kruger National Park. Later in the morning we saw a family of wild dogs and elephants. Within the park there was a large quantity of warthogs and zebra so after seeing a few we got fed up seeing them so frequently. On return to our hotel Sam drove like mad man again but thankfully we all arrived safely.

In the afternoon we did a hippo boat cruise in Saint Lucia. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this cruise but I learned a lot about hippos. I learned that hippos can not swim or float instead they stand in shallow water and dunk down into the water in order to keep their skin temperature regulated. We saw multiple groups of hippos including a cute baby hippo. The hippos leave the river and walk to the town at night to sleep so the captain of the boat advised us to look out for hippos if we walk down the street during dusk.Read more