My holiday to Richards Bay, St. Lucia and Hluhluwe, started off on the morning of the 30th of December. Lucille’s daughter Lyndall and husband Clint came up Christmas Eve and spent a few days at our place. And on the 30th we followed them up to their home in Richard’s Bay. But Lucille and I took a really nice drive up along the coast and stopped along the way at Balito beach for a walk on the board walk and a quick lunch. I found the ocean really blue here and the waves where rolling really well since it was windy.
Ballito Beach
New Years Eve, Lyndall took us over to a look out spot in Richards Bay off the coast, and finally once we found somewhere to eat lunch and buying some shampoo since I left mine at home in PMB we finally hit the road for St. Lucia for 2 nights staying at BIB’s International Backpackers. The backpackers were ok, but I met two girls from Singapore, where they were traveling down through South Africa on a holiday. We spent a quiet night there and actually I found that it can be really challenging to find somewhere to eat at certain times. So our New Years Eve was quiet, but there were fireworks going off at private parties.
New Years Day, we slept in very late and decided after a little while to book a hippo and croc boat tour on Lake St. Lucia Estuary for 2 pm, but in the mean time Lucille and I decided to try and drive around in the Isimangaliso Wetland Park, which we waited an hour in line to get in and then we didn’t have much time to explore since we had booked the boat tour. We did see however a few animals and I got a lovely shot of the coast line again. The boat tour was good and I saw lot of hippos including a baby one with its mother but was too quick to take a photo before hiding into the water again, but did manage to get one taking a big yawn. The hippos usually stay together in groups but we did see some where there were a couple together.
Hippo at Lake St. Lucia Estuary
Later after the boat tour I was very hungry since all I had eaten that day was 2 bananas all day, so Lucille and I went over to a restaurant that we had seen the night before and decided to try out their menu. When we walked into the place we were told that the kitchen was closed and that it would reopen at 6, but we could order drinks in the mean time. It was 4pm then and we decided just to get drinks and relax until the kitchen reopened for supper. There was a constant flow of customers coming in after us and were told the same story and left, but came back closer to 6pm. By then Lucille and I picked out our food, and by 6:50pm after waiting and waiting to give our order we were told that the kitchen cooks hadn’t shown up and that they weren’t going to be selling any food. So we wondered over to another near by restaurant and waited and waited in line until we were ushered to a table. It was about 8 pm by the time I finally had some food in my tummy. The night before I had similar issues that the kitchens were closed, but finally I got a burger at place just down from our room.
Saturday the 2, Lucille and I packed up our bags and said goodbye to St. Lucia and drove over to Hluhluwe & Imfolozi Park to search for the Big 5! I have to admit that the day tour of the park was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be which was good. We had gotten there about 8:30 am and it wasn’t long before we spotted our first of many giraffes, and not too long after a wild dog, but I didn’t see it soon enough for a picture and we never saw another one the rest of the day. During the course of the drive there would be dirt roads leading off the main paved road. I finally convinced Lucille to take one but she wasn’t too keen on it and was afraid an animal would damage her car. But I glad we took this road since we came across a herd of Cape Buffalo which is one of the Big 5 I hadn’t seen yet. Along this same road but further down we came across an elephant on the road, and at the very end of the road we found a white rhino laying in the muddy water hole. Other animals we came across were a wart hog, variety of buck, baboon, zebras, black rhino, some lizard and we just missed a leopard when we ventured into the Imflolzi side. Leopards are hard to find during the day, it is better to find in the early morning or on a night drive. We also didn’t see the lion, drat’s! But we did see a whole heard of elephants cross over a low river stream!
The beautiful view of inside the Park!
Elephants crossing the stream
White Rhino
We finally had to turn around since Lucille’s gas tank was getting pretty low and we still had to drive back to Lyndall and Clint’s home in Richards Bay, so we left the park at 5pm, feeling pretty good at seeing the many animals we did come across. I had met a couple at lunch time that only had seen giraffe at the beginning of the park, and they were heading into Imflolzi to find more.
Sunday the 3rd, Lucille and I accompanied Lyndall and Clint to their church. Their church meets in a school and as we entered the worship area I happened to notice some country flags hanging on the walls. And it just so happed that the row of chairs we sat down in my Canadian flag was the one hanging beside us! After the service and before we left I had Lucille stand with me beside my flag and also with her South African Flag for a photo; I just didn’t think we would get another chance to take our photos with our country flags again.
After lunch sometime we finally hit the road for home. I needed to get back so that I could my wash my clothes and repack for the next day for Port Shepstone/Shelley Beach for my Mennonite Christmas Retreat. It was a good holiday and I feel very blessed to have seen so much of God’s beauty in the past couple months and look forward to many more opportunities!
"Woah, that's alot of elephants">>Liam
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