Hippo cruise

This morning, we were up early with our tents down and breakfast eaten ready to leave by 7am. I think we were all a bit sorry to be leaving such a beautiful campsite after such a short stay.

We drove out of Eswatini through a very fertile landscape planted mainly with maize and sugar cane. After a beautiful couple of days, the weather wasn’t so good today. It was thick cloud, and we drove through some showers as we approached the border. Once again, the border crossing was painless.

Back in South Africa, we drove to the resort town of Saint Lucia, where we stopped to buy alcohol and to grab some lunch. The rain stopped long enough for us to sit outside for our coffee and panini. The town was full of tourists and tour companies offering boat trips, fishing tours, and kayak hire.

From town, it was only a ten-minute drive to the campsite we were staying at. We were to go backwards and forwards between the campsite and the town several times over the next couple of days. We always made the trip on the truck. It was too dangerous to walk, particularly after dark, as hippo wander freely through the town!

We managed to erect our tents before the heavens opened! By the time we got back on the truck to go for our hippo cruise on the Saint Lucia estuary, it was raining quite heavily. Luckily for us, we had a dry period which lasted the whole time we were on the boat! Apart from hippos (obviously – we would have been disappointed if there weren’t any!), we saw:

• Hadeda Ibis
• African Data Bird
• Reed Cormorant
• A pair of Fish Eagles
• Giant Kingfisher
• Zebra
• Waterbuck
• Egyptian Goose
• Crocodile
• Vervet Monkey

Mark got stung by a bee while we were on the boat, but he didn’t appear to suffer any ill effects.

The cruise lasted for about two hours. The sunset was stunning. When we got back to the jetty, René suggested walking back into town. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea as I was only wearing flip-flops, but we set off across the bridge. Half way over, Ernest was coming towards us in the truck, so he took us back to camp!
It was raining again by now, so I sat on the truck doing a bit of photo editing until it was time to go back into town for dinner.Read more