CROCS AND HIPPOS (and plenty of Booze)

---

After one night in Durban we arrived via the Baz Bus in St Lucia.
Believe us, one night was enough imagine Hell but ten times worse.
Our Bus didn't stop at Red lights through fear of getting 'Car-Jacked' or worse and the morning we left somebody got shot in the head at traffic lights and all they stole was his Car.
hmmmm......fond memories of Durban all round.........don't go there..........it's Scary!!!! (roll on Jo'Burg!!!!!




We pulled up at Bibs Backpackers in St Lucia and were first of all taken on a free ride round the town via an open top truck.
The place is beautiful, it really was something out of the Carribean, except for one minor detail. You weren't allowed to walk the streets at night.
This is very common in SA but for different reasons, normally U'd get mugged and stabbed, but in St Lucia you either get eaten alive by a Croc or crushed by a Hippo that roam the streets at night!!
Jesus, is there anywhere or anything that can't kill ya in this country?????

Our Driver on the tour Bus was 'Sandile', wot a legend. First impressions of this bloke was that he's just ur normal Zulu Black Nutter and how right we were.
We done the usual trick of turning up at the hostel with a view to stay three nights but ended up staying a week.
All of this was spent in the company of 'Sandile' and also our two travelling buddys from London 'Chris' and 'Rachel'.
We first met Chris and Rach in Plettenberg 3 weeks ago and spent a couple of nights there with them, we said our goodbyes then but met up again at Coffee Bay so we thought sod it, lets just travel together for their remaining two weeks of travelling. They were Legends, we had a right laff.

We experienced our first sighting of Hippos on our first day, these thing are Big Mommas but luckily we were viewing them from one side of the River and they were on the other. They can reach speeds of 30mph on land but to get across the river to take a chunk out of us would of taken ages.
So with the Hippos being sighted it was time to ask the question where the Crocs were, Sandile explained that the spot where we were standing was where his mates dog was eaten alive by a Croc 6 months ago. Need i explain what we were thinking at that precise moment, if the Croc managed to eat a Dog from springing out the water then surely it could of done the same to us!!
Me and Daz both looked at each other and persuaded Sandile that maybe it was better viewing the Hippos from the safety of the Truck!!

A couple of nights later we went on a Sunset Cruise down the River to get a close up sighting of the Hippos and Crocs. It was also advertised for the chance to get some close-up photos of the Birds around the Rivers edge but hey, we couldn't really give two-hoots about Herons and Sparrows. We only wanna see the stuff that can Kill you. (is that wrong)??
The cruise was decent enough but England were playing Croatia that night so we were clock watching to make sure we were back in time. (we wished we hadn't bothered)((i still love u Robbo)).


Every morning the hostel took people on a morning walk (if you managed to get out of bed, getting up at 7am was not our idea of fun).
On the fifth day we scraped ouselves out of bed as we had made a pact with Sandile that we will get ourselves outa bed at least one day to join him on his famous morning walks. The look on his face when we stumbled into Reception with a hangover in tow was priceless.
As it turned out it was just us three so he decided to take us on an "adventurous" route. We later found out that Sandiles version of "adventurous" meant "dangerous".
We turned up for the walk in flip-flops but were told we won't be needing them as where we were going, we were guna get dirty.

Twenty minutes drive later we arrived at a Nature Reserve where we came face to face with a sign as shown in the photo, but just incase you can't read it, it was basically saying if you enter this site you must have a death wish!!!

After about thirty minutes Sandile gestured for us to stop and pointed to some zebra that were only about fifty yards away,which was pretty amazing,but the best was yet come!
We were lead to believe that this walk was easy on your feet,YEAH RIGHT!,walking on glass is a good comparison.
We arrived at a River where Hippos were in the water just casually doing their thing but also keeping a close eye on us. They were only 40feet away but didn't seem to be disturbed, until that is we walked up the Bank another 10 meters and they started to smell us due to the wind direction. The male Hippo rose out the water and gave the air a good sniffing and starting to make a bellowing grunting sound, i started to fumble for the Camera but Sandile had other ideas. "come on guys, lets move, quickly". It wasn't until we were in the safety of the bushes that he explained these frigging Hippos were just about to charge us...........dyper please!!

A few steps more and we came to a small clearing still on the waters edge, we recognised this spot as on the Boat Cruise we saw a Croc lying here that was about 4 meters long...........another dyper please.
Whilst we were busy wondering where the bloody Croc was now Sandile had his mind on a small Croc that was just appearing from the reeds, "come on guys lets grab it's tail" errrr "are u taking the piss mate"???
No, he wasn't, but the Croc wasn't having none of it and kept its Jaw at a position where he'd snap if we got any closer.................time to leave.
Wkd experience but so so Scary!!



So that's the nature side of thing explained and now time for the Party stories.

Every night we took a trip down to the Beach where we made a Fire and drank cheap Cider, this was normally the calm before the storm because we'd still be drinking the cheap Cider until the wee small hours of the morning!!

One evening stood out especially because after experiencing a really dodgy Friday 13th Party at a local bar Sandile decided it was a great idea to go to a Shobeen 45 minutes away.
Our idea of a Shobeen was like the one at Coffee Bay (previous Blog) but we were up for giving this one a go. TOTALLY DIFFERENT, still not for the faint hearted but this one was a bit more club like where the music ran from Sockets and not Car Batterys.
It was a quality laff and wasn't long before we were getting on down with the locals. (we were the only white people in there).
The Bar was how Bars should be, we ordered a 'Southern Comfort and Lemonade' and in return we got a 'BOTTLE of Southern Comfort' and a 'BOTTLE of Lemonade' all for about 3 quid. BARGAIN!!
A couple of Whisky Bottles later Sandile decided it was time to move on and took us to his Mum and Dads house at 3am where he woke his Sister up to cook us some food. We can imagine our Sisters getting woken up by their paraletic brothers at 3am and asked to cook some food for their Brothers paraletic mates hahaha love u really xx
The food was gorgeous although me and Daz nearly came to blows over the last piece of Chicken--nothing new there then!!




All in all St Lucia was Wkd and Scary but we've made a new best mate in Sandile, and if we could have fitted him in our Rucksacks we would of but that would have meant forfitting the Immodium supplies and that just wasn't an option. ;-).


You may also notice a Man Utd top that Sandile is wearing in the photos, Daz had a drunken moment and now that top is still in St Lucia.


Ok, need to go to sleep now. We're getting up at 4am tomorrow to go on a 3day Safari in Kruger National Park. Ahh great, more things that wanna kill ya!!

Ps. Leave comments on the Blogs cos WE LUV 'EM

---