The Southern Coast of South Africa

We re-boarded the ship on the 4^th of January to continue our jaunt across the Indian Ocean. Since then we’ve trundled up the coast of South Africa.

Our first stop was the Addo Elephant National Park. It’s South Africa’s 3^rd largest national park, after Kruger and one near the Kalahari. This park was created in the 1930s to preserve elephants that were being killed by farmers because they trampled their crops and were very disruptive to farming. The national park is large enough to support 600 elephants and today there are 500ish. Occasional bull elephants are brought in from Kruger to enrich the gene pool.

We stopped at several watering holes and saw about 100 elephants. Picture 1 shows one cooling off by spraying herself with water. Picture 2 shows a family group approaching the watering hole.  In Picture 3, the group has arrived at the watering hole and they are cooling off. Finally, Picture 4 shows another group wallowing in the mud.

While originally created for elephants, today the park supports a wide range of African wildlife, including the “Big Five”: elephant, lion, rhino, leopard and Cape buffalo. The lions, rhino and leopards were elusive, but we did see our first Cape buffalo of the trip (Picture 5).

We also finally got some close-ups of wart hogs (Picture 6).

We also saw a large herd of zebras and enjoyed this loving pair (Picture 7).

We also spent one day exploring beaches and dunes near East London (Picture 8). We may be beach snobs, but, hands down, the most beautiful beaches in the world are in the US. Australia gets 2^nd place (although I have a feeling my Aussie friends might disagree with the 1-2 order….). The southern coast of South Africa is probably 3^rd—beautiful sandy beaches, great waves and gorgeous dunes. Caribbean: pretty, but small. Thailand: who can see the beaches with the crowds? Mediterranean: don’t waste my time. US, Australia, South Africa….

We also stopped in Durban and Betsy got off the boat, but didn’t find much interesting. Rick was quarantined for 2 days with the flu. Not the best of times….

Today we visited iSimangalio Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and took a boat through part of St. Lucia lake/estuary. It’s known for its hippos (biggest concentration in South Africa), crocodiles and bird life. Picture 9 shows a Weaver at his nest. The male weaver builds the nest and invites a female to take a look. If she likes it, they mate and she hatches her eggs in the nest. If she doesn’t like it, she rips it apart and he has to start again with her, or another, less-picky female! Don’t know if this is a happy female or a male looking for a female. 

Picture 10 is Goliath Heron, the largest heron in the world, with a wingspan of 2 meters. They often dine on baby crocodiles.

Finally, Picture 11 shows the stars of the wetlands: the hippos. They don’t mind the boats and we were able to cruise right up to this family group.

Tomorrow afternoon we’re off Mozambique and then on to the islands of the Indian Ocean—new territory!