Hippos and a charging elephant

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Thursday was our longest lie in for a week – we only had to be up in time for breakfast at 8.00am. We set off with Connor and our friends from the previous night for a boat trip in the St Lucia estuary. Further towards the sea there are lots of boats, but the lodge has sole rights to the water further inland. The boat was a small catamaran with an engine, designed for shallow waters. It was piloted by Warwick, a delightful and very knowledgeable chap of 84. He was recently widowed and taking people out on boat trips gave him the opportunity to meet new people. We saw plenty of hippos, but sadly none of them wanted to come out of the water, so all we saw were groups of bobbing eyes and ears, which would surface for a minute or two then drop back below the water. But it was a restful trip and we did see some huge Goliath cranes, which stand a good five feet tall.

iSiminangaliso is a very different sort of reserve to a more traditional game reserve. Don’t come here if you are looking for the Big Five, but do come if you want to see something different.

Saturday dawned and it was time for the sad but inevitable return to Durban to fly home. The highway is functional but uninspiring. The only point of interest was a massive queue of hopper lorries which stretched for at least seven miles on the hard shoulder. They have come from elsewhere in South Africa, and Mozambique, taking their bulk cargoes of coal, iron ore etc, to unload them in Richards Bay for onward shipment by sea. The port has no system for scheduling arrivals and unloading, so these poor drivers are sometimes on the hard shoulder for weeks waiting their turn. They spend their time in supreme boredom, constantly on the lookout for the gangs who periodically come to rob them, and sometimes murder them.

Car checked in at Durban, we boarded our flight to Johannesburg, passed our seven hour layover in the lounge, and took the overnight flight home.

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