iSimangaliso and Hluhluwe river

iSimangaliso Wetland Park is a huge protected area along the coast of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province. It’s an Unesco World Heritage Site since 1999 and the first in South Africa. The biome we saw so far in iSimangaliso was tropical, swamp, and grassland. Although it’s hard to say wat is swamp and wat solid ground.

On our first drive we saw some antelopes, zebras, giraffes and a lot of birds. (I love birds)

But todays highlight was the river cruise. We saw a brown-hooded female Kingfisher, Green-backed Heton, a woolly-necked stork and a lot more,
And of course hippos.

The river water was muddy and the hippos completely disappeared as soon as they went underwater. This is an absolutely frightening fact, because you wouldn’t notice that they are there, till it’s to late. Actually quite similar to a crocodile . But unlike to a crocodile, can a hippo not swim, instead they are walking underwater.

Along hippos is the river also home for two other big and dangerous animals: crocodiles and bull sharks.Read more