BALLITO BAY TO ST. LUCIA, SOUTH AFRICA--Sunday, March 16, 2014

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Ballito Bay to St. Lucia Sunday, March 16^th. Very overcast with low clouds and fog.



First thing this morning, is a stop at Wimpy’s for breakfast and to use the internet there. We then got back on the N-2 heading north paralleling the Indian Ocean. We are traveling in the sub-tropics now and the vegetation is like that of Mexico or Central America—palms, bananas, huge sugar cane fields. Labor is imported from other countries (in the past a lot from India) to work the cane fields and conditions are very poor with wages very low. The cane is still cut by hand here and when a field has been cleared, it is then burned.

The drive was through planted forests as well as the cane fields with lots of cops out with speed cameras. Even with the N-2 being a toll road, cows and goats were still loose on the sides of the road. We topped off our fuel tank as we were heading into the iMfolozi Game Reserve to do a self-drive and didn’t want to have a problem out in the middle of nowhere. When we reached exit 375 we left the toll road and were on R-618.

We arrived at the Nyalazi Gate about 11:30 and registered ourselves and the vehicle. From all the rain fall, the roads in this park are horrible with pot-holes and wash-board type damage on the tarred and dirt/gravel surfaces.

We drove to the Centenary Center, with a nice bronze statue in front, to see if we could find someone to give us a clue as to which of the many loops in this vast park would yield the most animal sightings. Valerie spoke with a man who said he suggested the loop near the river and so that is what we headed for. Spotted some big Cape Buffalo on our way back to the main road.

This Reserve seems to be more hilly than the others we have been in and is thickly covered by tall grasses and/or scrubs. Thinking we usually find something interesting by water holes, we left the main road for a look at the Bavuloma Waterhole, but only saw some Drongos sitting in the trees. Turned back around and headed up the main road again.

We crossed through the fenced and gated Mpila Camp where you can rent guest cottages for a stay while you explore. Just beyond this, we saw a herd of impalas with Oxpeckers on their sides, backs, and hanging on their legs. As we watched, one bird jumped onto the head of the Impala right between her ears, while several still lined her back. Valerie caught a picture while all “broke out in song,” including the doe. Didn’t recognize the tune or words as it was most likely in Zulu, but it made us laugh.

The tarred road ended and we continued on up into the hills to overlook the Black iMfolozi River on the Sontuli Loop. We stopped at the Sonluli Picnic Spot (a place you were allowed to leave your vehicle—which means you could step outside of your vehicle), ate some lunch in the RV as the bugs were thick out, walked out to see the river, and spoke with some of the locals having lunch. They warned us of a bull elephant that they saw further up the road and to be careful around him.

We continued on our way, moving slowly, and all total that day we saw more birds than animals. We spotted and took pictures of (skipped taking pictures of wart hogs and other animals we already had tons of pictures of):

- Crested Barbet sitting nicely on a limb so you can see his strange coloring

- A couple of Rhinos that came out of the bush right toward the RV but ignored it

- A herd of Blue Wildebeest that were once called Gnus that were grazing with the impalas

- A small flock of Southern Yellow Hornbills working the dirt in a field

- A White Fronted Bee-eater that also posed

- Some Kudus, and

- One European Roller that was stuffing a large grasshopper down his gullet.

We noticed a number of different plants and shrubs in bloom. The thorny dominate shrub that you can see in the photo had an interesting pink and yellow bloom.

In the late afternoon, we headed back to the entrance gate as we knew how slow we had to travel on these roads in extremely poor condition all the way back to the N-2. There we crossed over the toll-way and now drove south on the R-618 for a good ways toward St. Lucia.

As we crossed over the St. Lucia estuary, we saw signs warning of hippos crossing. That is a warning sign we never expected to see–-deer, bears, frogs, elk, cows, and goats, but never in my wildest thoughts, would we need to watch for hippos crossing the road!!!

Drove through the touristy looking town of St. Lucia and pulled into the Sugarloaf Camp just as it got dark a little after 6:00. Found a spot and plugged in for the night. Have to be up early in the morning for our boat ride on the estuary.

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