It was time to say goodbye to Mozambique and start heading south back into South Africa and along the coast. In most cases I’m finding us moving on a bit too quickly, but then again, there is a lot more to see and not much time. The beach and neighbouring camp in Mozambique where we stayed was really very beautiful and the swimming was perfect, temperature-wise, even though we’re in the middle of winter here. Nevertheless, it was time to venture south again, along the same track we drove up on from the South African border.
Instead of giving us the the rusty old pickup truck that we had to cram into last time, we were given a big military-type all terrain vehicle that looked like it didn’t even have to rely on roads of any kind to get around. They threw our gear in another trailer on the back of it and we all piled into a caged back area to sit on milk crates. I’m not sure which drive was the more comfortable of the two, north or south, but I at least felt more safe and secure in this one.
The border crossing was painless. I can now say I’ve visited South Africa 3 times – even though I have only been here a week! We transferred all of our gear back into our normal two-wheel drive vehicle (which was left at the border) and made the 4 hour drive south to Africa’s largest estuary, Saint Lucia, where we pitched our tents behind a local hostel.
The Saint Lucia Estuary is famous for its population of crocodiles and hippopotamuses, but it also has many of the other animals we’ve been seeing and looking for like leopards, buffalo, and a wide variety of birds. We all went out for a bit of local seafood lunch and then headed out on a 2 hour hippo spotting tour just before sunset.
Evidentially it is common for the hippos to roam through town at night to graze for food. They are nocturnal, hide underwater to keep cool during the day, and are responsible for the deaths of more humans than any other wild animal in Africa. Hopefully we’ll be okay sleeping outside it our tents!
The tour was nice and we did see a far few hippos, but it probably wasn’t quite as good as other river wildlife cruises I’ve done in Australia. We did see one crocodile and one buffalo, as well as several fish eagles – that look very similar to bald eagles.
At the moment the weather here is very unseasonably warm, which has been great. They are warning us that is all going to change, however, on Sunday when a big winter cold front moves through.
We might even see snow! But not until we move up into the mountains.