Travels in April Part II

Finishing off from Part I, on Saturday we went to Durban where my friend and I stayed at the Happy Hippo Hostel down on Mahatma Gandhi Road and next to uShaka Marine World.

The hostel was actually really nice and my first time staying in a real hostel. Up until this point I've only ever stayed in guest houses or hotels nothing with a true international hostel vibe. But Happy Hippo was really nice and there was a huge communal kitchen and even a bar on the top floor with a great view of Durban at night.

We had a few hours and decided to go to Victoria Market, which is the large more Indian-style market in the city. It was a really great place to buy souvenirs and my first real opportunity since I've been here. One of my favorite stands was a spice stand where this really nice Indian fellow sold my friend and I some of the best spices and so much cheaper than for what we would pay in Canada. I bought some authentic garam masala which I've wanted to cook with for a while. Also, as we would later find out, the prices for most of the typical tourist-y souvenir type things were a fraction of the price in Durban than they were at other places. Good to know if you ever go to Durban.

Actually I really liked Durban although we didn't spend much time there. Sunday morning we joined our official tour group and drove north along the coast to the Greater St. Lucia Wetland park. St. Lucia was South Africa's First Natural World Heritage Site and it was stunning. Unfortunately, the rain that started Saturday night in Durban continued and worsened Sunday so it was very cold and wet.

Our tour included a boat trip of the St. Lucia estuary (well former estuary) which was incredible. I say former estuary because due to an oil spill a few years ago, the government decided to try and reduce damage to the estuary by plugging it with sand. What they failed to take into account is that the oil spill was down current from the estuary and therefore there was little to no risk. So the formerally brackish and highly saline water is now more freshwater and the estuary is in a period of adapting. Hopefully nature will be able to correct herself!

And the first official animal photo on my safari! The animal I think I was most excited to see before coming to South Africa was the hippo. They are really fascinating and interesting animals. Above is a family pod of hippos! Our tour guide had lots of facts about hippos. Hippos actually can't swim; they walk/jog through the water. So the estuary isn't that deep as these hippos are standing and sleeping on each other.

 I call this photo "Hippo Hug". While in the water, hippos will doze their heads on each others backs so that if one gets startled and moves, the other one will wake up and the hippo on his back will wake up and etc until the whole pod is alert. Not much really bothers a hippo though. Most people know that hippos are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa, including crocodiles, lions, leopards, etc. Hippos when on land are looking for food and also can run fast, up to 40 km/h! So they may look fat and stupid but they are actually fast, territorial and sometimes a bit aggressive. So that's definitely not a hug you want to be in the middle of (still so cute though!).

This bird is a Goliath Heron, one of the largest heron species in the world. He stands almost 2 m tall at full height which is quite impressive. Being wading birds, they aren't found far away from water. St. Lucia has a large population.

This is a male South African Fish-Eagle. One of South Africa's indigenous eagle species, they eat fish (obviously). He was one half of the mated pair we saw; the female was sitting in the tree on the opposite side of the estuary. Fish eagle's mate for life and should one bird die, the other will starve itself to death. But the fact they're here means there is lots of fish for them to eat.

I also saw other birds including Egyptian geese. We did see glimpses of crocodiles too but they dove under too quick for me to get a good photo. St. Lucia is definitely a place I would love to return too; hopefully it will be sunnier next time!