17th May St Lucia

17^th May St Lucia

This town is at the southerly end of the St Lucia Wetlands. A world heritage listed site renowned for its marine & birdlife and stretches 200kms to the Mozambique border. The campsite is part of the national park and overlooks an estuary where large signs warn not to get closer than 30 metres from the hippos and crocodiles. Personally I wouldn’t think of getting within 50 metres of the former. It’s quite nice to once more hear their grunting and groaning of a night. There is a wooden raised walkway to the beach from the campsite that suddenly drops down to sand level so the animals can pass over on their way to the lagoon. The hippos spoor are large, and as a Sth African said to us ‘If their paws are that big just imagine how big their mouths are!’

At Salt Rock we met Israel, the owner of my old Moroccan shoes, (I thought his name was Joseph) which by the way, were horribly savaged by some dog way back in Ruanda. He said that yes, he still wore them at night and no, he wouldn’t sell them back to me. We were going to stay another night there but the camp was pretty full.

Sometimes life can catch you out: we arrived at Salt Rock on dark. The sites are all tiered towards the ocean. Getting set up we felt we were being watched by dozens of eyes especially by a large couple directly above us. We were on the defensive and scoffed unnecessarily on how the Sth Africans come to a place like Salt Rock, set themselves up and ignore everyone around you. This is how they spend their holiday. Then in the morning Jan, the big bloke directly above us, came down and introduced himself. He was baffled by the Namibian number plate. We talked for 20 interesting minutes. In the mean time Joan had got talking to a bloke down from us that was admiring how we get around. We have been caught out before. South Africans are quite reserved, but break through that and they are the most hospitable people you can meet. That’s unless you are Stewart Dickinson, the Australian rugby ref. They hate him

The drive here started off through fields of sugar cane as far as the eye could see, then eucalyptus plantations started to become intermingled and before too long they had taken over the landscape. They look very healthy and I would say are grown for pulp milling. They are too close together for timber.

Tomorrow we will look around these wetlands then head to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi NP.