St Lucia

Day 6 South Africa - iSimangaliso (Greater St Lucia) Wetland ParkWe leave Swaziland and take a scenic drive towards the warm Indian Ocean coast, re-entering South Africa.  Soon after our arrival at iSimangaliso Wetland Park we board a boat for a sunset cruise on the lagoon for some bird and hippo viewing!   This UNESCO recognised area is extremely varied and includes: lakes, beaches, coral reefs, wetlands, woodlands, coastal forests and grasslands together supporting an astounding diversity of animal, bird and marine life.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

St Lucia
7th of December 2013
Today was another early start, 6:30am breakfast on the road at 7:20am. Fortunately Lisa and I have pretty much got the whole living out of a back pack sorted, pack the bags the night before, spare clothes in the day pack (small removable bag attached to the backpacks). Load our gear in about 6am before the convergence of 19 people to one choke point, the entrance to Otis. (every overlanding company names their trucks, Nomads appear to be named after famous musicians) at the entrance is where the personal storage lockers are located, as you can imagine when all 18 of us are waiting around for one person to get themselves sorted, it isn't generally pleasant given most people wake up like a bear with a sore head.

The sad thing about Africa (not just Swaziland) is the people in power ensure their family, then tribe prosper. If your not in either o those two groups then your fresh out of luck. In Swaziland the King has 14 residences one of which we passed, that also happened to be his main residence. From a distance it looked pretty impressive an even had it's own soccer stadium attached to it. Now generally you would expect that the main function of the soccer stadium would be for soccer... but you would be wrong. The stadiums main function is basically for the young ladies of the nation to dress in traditional costume and dance for the King, why would they be dancing for the King? I hear you say, well obviously so he can choose one to become his "new" bride and this tradition happens every year that he is the King of Swaziland. My issue is that some of his subjects are living in poverty within eyesight of his main residence, poor form to say the least.

It was a simple enough days travelling as there was no issues at the Swaziland & South African border crossing. On the Swaziland side they are halfway through building an impressive Immigration facility.

We arrived at our digs for the night at around 4pm to be pleasantly surprised that we had free Wi-fi, now when I first mentioned Wi-fi several days back I was mocked. But that all changed, everybody wanted a piece of the action.

We headed off to a Estuary cruise, it's a must do. I wasn't sure about this activity, but I was really surprised. We had Stacey as our Captain / Tour Guide, she was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about all the wildlife in Africa. So here is a interesting statistic, there were 12 recorded fatalities due to hippos last year in South Africa, they believe there were alot more but can neither confirm nor deny. (and nobody is talking culls to prevent the loss of human life) As it turns out St Lucia is the Hippo capital of the world, at night they say don't walk anywhere because you are very likely to come across a hippo wandering around looking for a feed. The human shield, Lisa was tired, so I wasn't going out either.

In regards to the cruise I'll let the pictures do the talking, however I have to say that all these "great pictures" were taken with Lisa's camera and my 50 to 500mm lens because my battery went flat after the first couple of shots and I didn't take my spare batteries on the boat. Yes I owe Lisa...