ST. LUCIA TO PANGOLA, SOUTH AFRICA--Monday, March 17, 2014

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St. Lucia, Surgarloaf Camp to Pongola. Monday, March 17^th.


We all drove our RVs down to the St. Lucia dock and parked so that all 14 of them would fit in the parking lot. We boarded the river boat and off we went to look at hippos mainly, but also to see what other wildlife we could see along the shore.

Approximately, 1/3 of the world’s hippo population can be found in the area surrounding St. Lucia. It wasn’t too long chugging up the estuary before we were shown pods of hippos in the water. Lots of pods, with lots of hippos—generally 25-30 animals stay in a pod made up of females and young with one territorial bull who stakes out a section of the water. What you see is mainly a rough circle of heads sticking out of the water. They have no problem resting their heads on each other.

As we moved along, the guide continued to talk to us about the hippopotamus. We learned that: a) Although they look pig-like, their closest living relatives, are actually whales and porpoises; b) They are semiaquatic, inhabiting rivers, lakes, swamps; c) During the day, they remain cool by staying in the water or mud and emerge at dusk to graze on grasses (hence the warning to watch out for them crossing the road); d) They have been clocked traveling 19 mph over short distances and they are apparently one of the most aggressive animals in the world. That fact ranks them among the most dangerous animals in Africa; and e) Nevertheless, they are still threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and large ivory canine teeth.

The birds we saw along the waterway on this cruise were:

̶ A gorgeous Fish Eagle that looks and is a cousin to the American Bald Eagle;

̶ A Giant Kingfisher;

̶ A Water Thick-knee;

̶ A Wooly-Necked Stork;

̶ A Spur-Winged goose in flight; and

̶ A Grey Heron



Toward the end of the ride there was a large monitor lizard laying on an abandoned deck. When the boat docked, we all got off and into the RV’s, and headed out. Almost all of the group were headed to the nearby Hluhluwe National Park that is adjacent to the park we were in yesterday.

The road getting there was so bad we decided not to go that route again and instead would go to the area (uMkhuze Game Reserve) that was supposed to have lots of birds with bird hides in a wet-land environment. Our map showed the gate to be only 16km off the N-2 and about 12-13 km to the bird hides. We thought this looked real doable and a switch from driving so far on the horrible bumpy, back and spine killing, roads. So, we let folks know where we were headed and off we went.

First we traveled north on the N-2 until we saw the sign to the game reserve and turned onto a rutted, red, dirt road through scrub land. At the dead end of this road we turned left onto a wider red dirt road that was really rough. We kept creeping along as we were committed now. Crossed several wet, wet, areas holding our breath that we wouldn’t get stuck and finally came to a sign that pointed us to take a right to the Game Reserve.

Here, we found some habitation and farms which made us feel a bit better. We passed over several concrete bridges where the water was running 3-4 inches over the top of the concrete, but they seemed to be ok to ford. Navigated an area where the road had been narrowed to one lane with the water taking out the other side/lane when the nearby stream had flooded and rushed downhill.

Onward, Valerie drove going through a small community that was to us, typical of the REAL Africa of National Geographic images. Donkeys in the road–hadn’t seen them before now. Round wood/sticks/mud and rock homes with thatched roofs and small garden plots dotted the sides of the road.

Finally, finally, we got to the gate of the Reserve (no guard gate and no one around just a sign) only to see a strong, 8-10 foot wide and 2-3 foot deep, flowing creek cutting across the road directly in front of us, then a 2-3 foot high bump of sand/dirt/and-what-have-you, and then another flowing stream directly on the other side of that. We looked at each other and made the only decision we could—turn around and go back the way we came as this RV is not a 4 wheel drive with a high under carriage. There was no way to tell how deep the water was, how solid it was underneath the water, and we felt in all likelihood, given our length, we would hang up on the dirt/sand/berm wrecking stuff like mufflers and oil pans and other such.

Driving back, we waved again at the woman washing clothes in the stream. This time we noticed a circle of white rocks and remembered the guide in Durban explaining that this type of area was like a “church” or a place used for religious purposes.

When we got to the T-intersection we turned to the right/north instead of south the way we had come before. We then began to drive through cane fields until we came to the town of Mkuze. We drove into the main square and saw a KFC where we went for lunch. Really hot and muggy so wanted a cool place to eat out of the heat. Don’t think they see many tourists this way is probably an understatement! Hopped back on the N-2 and headed to Pongola.

A few miles up the road it started to rain and then as we climbed up and over a steep pass it poured so hard with lots of hail it was hard to see anything. We only had to go about 60 km but they were very long kms before we turned into the Pongola Caravan Park. Everything was wet and muddy but we parked on the grass, under some trees, and waited out the rain to plug in. We were the first one into camp and we just relaxed as it had been a hard day!

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