St Lucia - Hlueluwe - Pongola

Monday, March 17, 2014  St Lucia Boat ride – drive thru Hluhluwe NP – drive to Pongola

We had an early morning boat tour this morning of St Lucia Lake.  It was cut off from the Ocean four years ago during a drought and thus it is 100% salt water and contains salt water fish and sharks.  It also has a very large concentration of hippos.  They have no skin protection from the sun so thus they stay in the water all day and roam the town at night foraging for food etc.  Hippos kill more people in Africa each year than any other animal. Hippos cannot swim but the walk on the bottom and spring up for air every 3 minutes if they are in an area that is too deep to stand.  They live in pods along the shoreline and are fantastic to watch from a boat.  The lake also has sharks and is the largest breeding area for prawn.

From the boat besides the hippos we also saw an American Fish Eagle, a kingfisher, crocodile, water monitor lizard, pygmy nocturnal bird, grey heron, a sperwing goose, and a stork.

We then drove thru a small town with cows, goats and people constantly in the middle of the road.  As we were about to enter the park there was a herd of Elephants who walked across the road in front of Herm and Georgia.  They just had to stop and wait for them to pass.

 We saw again many amazing  animals and then proceeded on to Pongola Caravan Park.