Chapter 8 - St. Lucia and Durban

So the evening game drive from the Hilltop Camp would be our last on land.  We would sleep one more night there before heading out and making our way south to Durban.  This would be the first time we would be on the coast of South Africa and it meant a change of scenery.  We would trading these...


...for these.

Just in case...

This would be a short visit as we were here only to take a boat ride on St. Lucia Lake.  The lake itself appears more like a river and leads right into the ocean.  However, the two are often seperated by sand as the tide comes in and out.   See below...  



I'm so glad I can fly

We travelled up river towards the area where three pods of hippos live.  Hippos though known for their diet of white marbles and tendency for having extreme hunger, are actually one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.  They are extremely aggressive toward humans and commonly attack whether on land or in water without provocation.  We would travel in a fairly large boat which kept us from feeling threatened...

hippo tusk

                           ...until Kate got her hands on this!  There canine tusks are made of ivory and they are very dense.  This weighed around twenty pounds.  The docile appearance of the hippo has lead to a lack of fear in humans which in turn has resulted in quite a few tragic results.  For whatever reason, they don't like us.  Given that they are herbivores and only resort to meat eating in times of nutritional stress, you have to wonder what the motive for attack could be. 

They spend most of the day in the water because their skin can easily dry out.  They will come on land at dusk to graze but EVERYTHING else is done in water.  They can pull off sleeping because the water is so shallow.  They are actually standing on the bottom. 

I'm pretty sure we saw more sleeping than we did awake...

   



Okay so they weren't all asleep.

Hippos were not the only animals we would see on the river.  We were visited by a few others we had come across in Kruger National Park.



Giant Kingfisher



Kind of hard to tell what this guy is supposed to blend in with...



African Fish-Eagle



Our old buddy...

Pod #2

Pods are made up of one dominant male and the rest are females.  If a cow gives birth to a male, the mother will flee with the newborn for safety.   Otherwise the alpha male will kill the calf.

infant hippo

Not going to lie.  All I wanted was a picture of one of theses things with its mouth wide open and none of them were obliging me.

Had pretty much put the camera away on our way back to the dock and of course this happens.  Caught this guy at the last second.  Apparrently an open mouth means the hippo feels threatened. 

The end of our cruise in St. Lucia would mean we were finally heading back to civilization: Durban.  Located on the south eastern coast of SA, it is the fastest growing city in the world behind Mexico City according to our guide David .  It has the busiest port in SA and more importantly, really nice hotels.  We were ready to be back in luxury as our last few nights on safari were a little rough. 

The Indian Ocean from our hotel in Durban

We arrived in Durban early enough for a dip in the Indian Ocean and some time on the beach.  It was fantastic.  The following morning we were off to the airport and headed to Capetown.