Hippos & Crocs

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The greyhound would only take us to Richards bay, and from there we would catch local shared taxis/combis to St Lucia changing in Mtubetube. It was great to finally catch a combi and be crammed into the back seat with the locals. Seeing the people at Richards Bay as we were waiting to leave (the buses leave when they are full) was great. We started to really feel like we were in a country that had much more for us to discover the way of local culture.
St Lucia was a great stop. On the way in we saw in the distance some Hippos in the water. We had decided to take our first safari from here in place of going to Kruger - which seemed to us a little too big and expensive. Our day safari to Hlulue-Umfolozi was wonderful. We saw so many animals I'm sure I can't name or remember them all. We saw practically everything that day except cats (we saw a Hyena) and Hippos. We saw a large herd of about 40 Elephant crossing the road right in front of us and then grazing near us. We saw many Giraffes. We saw many White Rhinos, Wildebeest (Gnu), Impala, Kudu, Bushbucks, and so many other types of bucks and one Black Rhino. Our guide was excellent and over lunch told us how, like many locals he used to be a poacher for food but now is very involved in conservation and education. We spent some time looking for the lions, and saw the site of a kill the day before, but the lions were lion low that day.
The next day we were for a walk around the St Lucia town. There are signs everywhere there warning about Hippos and Crocs - mostly dangerous at night, but we spent some time on a bush trail wondering if there were any close. The beach was large with many Afrikaans fishing and drinking on yet another holiday weekend, there were a few crocs lazing the sun also. Easter in South Africa definately goes on for 3 weeks.

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Photos

Elephants
A herd of Elephants cross the road while one is posted to traffic duty