St. Lucia

From Mlilwane we headed down through Swaziland, across the border at Golela border port and back into South Africa. Swaziland’s scenery continued to impress us throughout the journey and although I’m not the best traveller, the motion of the car often lulls me to sleep, there was much variety and beauty, plus Rob’s stimulating observations, to keep me awake.

After another slightly stressful border crossing we continued on our way. All of our travelling has really made me realise how beautiful and varied Africa’s scenery is, how often Rob needs the loo (and not always when one is available), and how being in the car makes me eat. I could be a stone heavier by the time we reach Cape Town!😩

St. Lucia was very nice, we had a lovely, relaxing time there but it wasn’t my favourite place. It felt like a strange little town built almost entirely around tourism, almost manufactured. That was just my impression, apparently there is a lot of history surrounding the area but we were just there a couple of nights and were happy to move on.

We stayed at the Bhangazi Lodge in the Elephant room – I can’t imagine why it was called this?Again this was lovely and in a good position to explore the surrounding area. We had some great walks within the town and along the beach and a delicious, very good meal at The ski boat club.

Our one full day here we spent at the wetlands and on Cape Vidal. The beaches were beautiful but very hot and windy. After snorkelling and being sandblasted for a little while we moved along to a more rocky cove where I found shelter to read my book while Rob explored rock pools and chased crabs.

We had been told there was much wildlife within the national park and there were signs everywhere listing the animals and potential dangers. Apart from a few monkeys and the odd deer we hadn’t seen anything and as we left the beaches and drove back towards the gate we joked over our lack of game sightings. After exploring yet another loop in search of the elusive inhabitants we agreed to stick to the main route and get home. Within seconds our doubts were forgotten as we came across three black rhinos grazing by the road. They were beautiful and did restore our faith that there were actual animals in the park.🤣

My biggest disappointment of St. Lucia was a lack of hippopotami. Every street corner displayed signs warning of the danger of them and everyone we spoke to had encountered at least one on their evening jaunts. Despite seeing evidence that they’d been on the streets (hippo poo) and dragging Rob out on quests to find one, they remained elusive.

We left the peace and tranquility of St. Lucia on Wednesday to head for the bright lights of the big city.