Hippopotamuses & Fire Ants

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The adventure tales are about to begin so sit back in a comfy chair, get a good cup of tea and settle in. Now, where did I leave you last…..oh yes, the night drive.

We had decided on the Jo-A-Lize guest house on the main strip in St Lucia based partly on the price and choice of rooms, and mostly on the overwhelming honesty of our host. River boat tours? No, don’t waste your money, they’re rubbish. Just go down to the Ski Club, have a pint and watch the crocs and hippo’s from there. Night drive? A must, and you have to go with Kian, he’s the best around, I’ll book you for tonight.

Kian was Kian Barker of Shaka Barker Tours, and we quickly discovered why he was the best. At 8pm sharp we were picked up in a big land rover turned people carrier with blankets and spotlights. After an intro to the park and the St Lucia area, it’s history and it’s future we headed off to the park. Before even entering the park, Kian started procuring wildlife like a magician. He stopped the truck and whilst talking to us reached into a tree and came out with a tiny Chameleon wrapped around his finger. Bri and I looked at each other, “did he have that in his pocket?!”. Further on inside the park and again, another Chameleon. This time the tree was more then 20 feet away and it’s pitch black outside. Seriously? There is now way he spotted this three-inch little green guy from that far away. “It’s all in looking for what’s not supposed to be there” he explains. “At night they curl up like dead leaves, so you look for dead leaves that are out of place”. Ah, of course, that makes perfect sense, I still think he had it in his pocket. Either that or he’s one of these magical bush men that can spot a Bush Bokke dropping form 10 meters and not only tell you what it ate for dinner last week but also which way it was going and if it was thirsty or not.

Onward we went through the darkness, the trusty spotlights searching out Plains Zebra’s, Hippopotamus’, African Buffalo, Bushbuck, Greater Kudu, Common Duikerand a very shy Bush Pig. We also stopped to look at the smaller members of the bush community, like a Fire Ants’ nest. Did you know that Fire Ants create silk and make their nests in the leaves of tree blanches? Well, they do, and they prefer larger leaved trees, in case you were wondering. It benefits the trees as well because the ants will attack anything that attacks the tree. Mutualism at it’s finest.

We stopped for hot chocolate, turned all the lights out and bam! The stars exploded above us, thousands of them, none of which I recognized, spreading out across the ebony sky like glitter. The sky was so massive, so totally huge, it almost felt oppressive. We stared up at them in amazement and sipped out cocoa in quiet. We returned to the guest house ready for sleep and snuggled into our beds.

Xo
S

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