Wednesday 17 June 2009
This morning we woke up and decided to drive through to St Lucia to see what the little town has to offer. So after breakfast we head off towards St Lucia. Driving there is an adventure on it’s own with this 4×2 that we’re driving. The roads are quite sandy with a million and one different routes we can take to get there. I obviously take the one with the most NON-tar roads 
With no load on the back of the bakkie, it’s backside is quite loose on the gravel, so it really makes for an interesting drive.
On the way there we saw this HUGE dog on the back of a bakkie. So we just had to take a photo.
Big Dog
The first place we stop is at the St Lucia Crocodile Centre. We do the touristy thing and go in there. It turns out to be a lot bigger than I expected, and we see a lot more crocodiles and alligators than I could’ve imagined. We got to see a lot of hatchlings, teenagers and big adults.
Crocodiles
There is also a little cycad garden with some very nice lookings cycads in there.
Cycad Garden
After the crocodile centre, we drive through the little town of St Lucia to see what there is to see. We stop off at two of the beaches they have there, just to see what it’s like. It’s quite different just for the fact that you’ve got these huge trees that look like they’re growing out of the sand dunes.
From there we headed towards a river, and Bernadette almost jumped out of the window with excitement when we saw hippos in the river from afar. I think that it’s probably some sort of nature reserve that we’ll need to pay to get into, and we start driving towards the river. We get there and it’s a public park with people sitting and walking along the banks of the river and some are even fishing. I just look and Bernadette and we both decide this seems to unreal. Further down the river we see crocodiles playing around in the water.
Carefully we go down to the river’s bank, take a photo, and get away from there. I know hippo’s look like slow creatures, but I’ve read somewhere that they are actually very fast movers on land.
Infront of the Hippos
We sat around and watched this for a while, just to make sure we are really seeing it. The whole time we’ve been in the area I’ve seen Beware of Hippo signs, but I never really thought you’ll actually see them.
After checking out the rest of the town we started heading back to Nibela Lodge. On the way there we saw a board with a sign on for a Bird Park. We decided to go and drop in. It’s privately owned, but they have the most amazing birds there. You can see it’s been built by someone that loves birds.
Parrots
It’s also the first time that I’ve seen birds dig holes in the ground, especially parrots and ringnecks.
Birds digging
On the way back to our lodge, we had a nice little lunch at one of the quick stops.
My beautiful Bernadette
All the way back we were just in awe of all the trees that surround the main roads. It’s a pity they’re just being grown to be cut down for paper.
Trees
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