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Published: October 21st 2023
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We enjoyed a positive lie in this morning, only needing to get up at 6.30 for a 7.00am departure. After a cloudy start the sun came out and the day heated up. We drove to the bottom of the western shores of the St Lucia estuary, then crossed over and re-entered the park at the main gate to the eastern shores. The landscape was totally different to Manyoni. It’s flat, apart from a row of hills by the shoreline, which turned out to be massive sand dunes, covered in small trees and bushes. The vegetation is also sparser, and broken up by pools of water filled with rushes and water lilies. We drove past a couple of groups of hippos, the first basking in the water with just their ears and nostrils visible, but the second with some fully out of the water giving a better impression of their great bulk. After nearly two hours, with the odd stop to look at birds or animals, we pulled off onto a road with a ‘road closed’ sign. Connor told us this was private to the lodge. Five minutes down the track we pulled into a grassy clearing with two wooden tables. This
was to be our breakfast spot. While Connor prepared and set out breakfast, we clambered down the sand dune onto the beach. It was totally private and so beautiful, with pale yellow sand, some outcrops of rock and gently breaking waves. The rocks turned out to be home to a host of barnacles of different sizes, shapes and colours, and rapidly scuttling crabs that were at least nine inches across. Getting back up the dune was more challenging, but we were rewarded with a full breakfast. We drove on to a lookout point, from which we could see right across the estuary to the western shores, and the lake that our lodge overlooks, and then set off back home. On the way we saw a huge stork, standing in front of some hippos.
Back at the lodge it was time for lunch – food is never ending in game lodges. Half way through, the lodge owner came in to tell us there was an elephant drinking from the pond in the front garden, so we temporarily abandoned our meal and rushed to see him. He was no more than 40 feet away, and stood sucking up water than spraying
it back up himself, swallowing some but mostly just spraying it around. He was completely unconcerned by our presence and it was magical to stand quietly and watch him for 10 minutes or more, before he ambled off. We enjoyed having the rest of the day off, with time to relax and edit some of the thousands of photos we’d taken over the last few days. Our villa had its own private terrace looking out onto the wetland reserve and from time to time a few impala or nyala would wander past.
In the evening we headed to the boma for drinks and dinner around the log fire, and were delighted to find Michael and Barbara, a German couple we’d shared game drives with Leopard Mountain, had arrived. We spent the evening chatting with them and a South African couple.
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