St. Lucia, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

The air outside is soft and warm.  There is a light tropical breeze blowing and the vegetation all around us is lush and green.  There is the sound of thunder, and light raindrops are beginning to fall.  In the distance is the sound of the surf of the Indian Ocean.  Barb and I are on the balcony of our suite overlooking the pools and grounds of this Four Star bed & breakfast.  To the right is the swimming pool, and to our left are two pools of some very large goldfish. 

What is most unusual is that just outside the fenced property are the grounds of a very large park and animal reserve.  There are elephant and hippos that will come right up to the fence.  Last week, there was a leopard that jumped onto the roof of the house next door.  We have been warned of hippos on the road if we walk into town (“Just go to the other side of the road.  Don’t confront them.”).  This B&B is situated in a small town called St. Lucia, on the Northeastern coast of South Africa,   It is renowned for its estuary, its nearby beaches, the whale and bird watching, and many outdoor activities.

Yesterday we were in the large, very modern, city of Johannesburg with its 10 million people and its mile high, central plains, climate.  We spent last night in a very basic, 60's vintage, airport hotel, so that it would be easy to catch our early flight out.  Jo-berg is modern enough to have hours long traffic jams.  Plus, my cousin Cate is renowned for the fact that she is directionally challenged, which injects great uncertainty into any scheduled arrival time.  Barb and I have fun watching, but are afraid to tell her how incredibly talented we can be at getting "lost".  Actually, we are never lost since we usually know where we are, but may have no idea how to get to where we want to be.  Talents like Cate's and ours can randomly add the spice of confusion (and humor) to any journey, in addition to the extended journey time.

On the road... again.

This morning was like any travel morning.  I am lugging Big Bertha, our EXPEDITION sized bag, plus two duffels that are plenty large enough in their own right.  There is the usual wrestling match at the airport with an eager helper who wants to carry them all for me.  He finally concedes the match to me when Barb tells him that her favorite Cheapskate has no change to give him.  Before that, strictly in the interest of furthering international relations, I was letting him win.  After all, I really didn't need help and was perfectly happy to watch someone else grunt and groan with the 1,000 essentials we have packed.  I know that the Mountaineers only recognize 10 essentials, but the unimaginative guy that can come up with only ten has never traveled with my very delightful companion.

As we are on final approach at Durban International, I look outside to see the low overcast of a humid, seaside, tropical climate.  The terrain is low rolling hills, with red dirt beneath the vibrant green vegetation of low trees, shrubs and grasses.  It immediately reminds me of Kauai, one of my favorite places on the earth.  What is missing is the high volcanic terrain of the islands, and the wonderful beaches that are always close there.   As we drive away from Durban, we notice that the feeling continues with one major exception.  Unlike the islands, this rolling terrain goes on and on and on.  Outside of Durban has got to be some of the best agricultural land around.   And as we drive North towards our destination, we just see more and more.  One of the odd crops are the large stands of Eucalyptus trees being grown for logs and pulp.

Drive north from Durban - it's lush and green!

 Barb and I had intended to visit a local mall in Durban to have her new camera checked at the Sony Centre.  This DSC-100V is a great camera, but it had a really bad day while we were at Elephant Camp. First, it wouldn't take movies.  Then it would only take movies no matter which button you pressed.  The screen blanked and other malfunctions seemed to occur randomly.  When we finally figured out how to check the malfunction codes, there was a very long list.  The recommended fixes for each consisted of various verbiage that I will sum up as "turned the D@#%ed thing off and hope it works when you turn it back on".  It works great now, and we think that it was just too hot that day (which it definitely was).  However, after congratulating ourselves on finding the N2 Toll Road on the very first try, we failed to find the exit to the Umhlanga mall although we tried for about 40 extra kilometers.  Of course, after you have missed the exit, going just a little bit farther only means that it takes longer to get there when you finally turn around.  We circumvented that problem by deciding that the camera was working just fine now, someone trying to fix it might really break it, and we didn't real want to go there anyway.

So, we wandered up the highway for another three or four hours towards St Lucia.  I know I've said that this is a large country, but driving from Durban to St. Lucia is like going from Seattle to Salem.  There is a great four lane toll road for most of the way.  The drivers are mostly expert, and seem to be more predictable in their actions when I drive on the wrong side of the road just as they do.  We have seen very few accidents, although I may have caused a few.  This statement was reinforced today because we did reverse course once for about 10 miles.  When we came back there was one single car accident exactly where we had driven before.  During the drive, we took a short detour to Richards Bay, which turns out to be a totally charmless, but economically vital industrial city.  Every country needs cities like that, but no one, including us, wants to vacation there.

St. Lucia has charm to spare.  It is small, with lots of restaurants and B&B's.  Ours is very comfortable and the nicest room on the premises is a large suite which costs about 130 USD.

It's time to quit.  Barb just got totally surprised by a huge clap of thunder.  I will get her off of the ceiling as soon as I finish this blog.......

Sat: 29 Oct  St Lucia to Phinda

Today’s entry will be short.

St. Lucia B&B

This morning there was a delightful breakfast on the open patio.  The object of much discussion for Barb and I was how to describe the VERY loud sound of the frogs that sang to us  all night.  It seems to be some combination of a woodpecker rat-a-tat, yet it also reminds us of the child’s clacker toys that never ceased as long as you spun them around.  The B&B owner laughed at our description, but agreed with it.  For the record, we think the stories of hippos in the street and leopards on the roof are myths perpetuated by the locals for the tourists.  In other words, we didn’t see any.

Dipping toes into the Indian Ocean.

But after breakfast, Barb and I added another “notch” to our travel belt.  We went wading in the Indian Ocean.  It’s another one of the Seven Seas of the World, and neither of us had ever been near it.  We drove to the local beach, walked across the sands to the big surf, and dipped our toes.  There were lots of fishermen, van loads of school children, 4WD trucks, and walkers all along the shore.  But although plenty were wading, no one was swimming or surfing.  The surf is plenty good enough, and I don’t know about the shark situation, so the reason why is not yet clear.

One of the things in Africa that is difficult for me to deal with is the use of young children for hawking souvenirs, and selling “services”.  Today, they were selling ornaments made of small gourds.  They have a sad wistful look, and limited language.  It is hard not to buy from them.  But just out of sight, sitting on a hill in the shade, is an adult incongruously wearing another of the semi-uniforms.  There are children around him also.  They leave him and go to try to sell their goods.  Other children are in the parking lot wearing orange reflective vests.  Just as we were leaving, they came up to us and wanted money for having provided security for our parked car.  Paying not to get ripped off is common in many parts of the world.  So, their request is not surprising to me.  And it’s often a good investment.  But this is the first time that it has been so obvious that there is a “manager” for these children.  I was not tempted by their wares or their “security”, but had been tempted to just give them some of our change.  Seeing their adult supervisor sitting on the hill made me decide not to contribute.  I am too suspicious that the children will get to keep little or nothing of what they are given.

Indian Ocean at St. Lucia

Road into Phinda

After the ritual Indian Ocean dip, we drove to our next destination - Phinda Mountain Lodge (pronounced “pinda”).  It is another of Cate’s luxury lodges set up in the NE corner of SA, near Swaziland and Mozambique.  Located in a private game reserve, it is home to all of the Big Five and more.  Although it is just off the major highway N2, even Google Maps can’t accurately find it.  Only the directions given by the lodge were correct.  After driving many miles down rough dirt roads, we come to a very large and official looking gate.  Some of our border crossings have seemed less official.  The gate guard confirms that we are expected before he allows us to enter.  He gives very precise instructions for the 15 miles left to drive on even rougher roads than before.  Our poor little Toyota Corolla rental probably would rather turn around at this point.

Some of Phinda's welcome committee.

However, on the rest of the drive to the lodge, Barb sights and photos Zebra, Giraffe, Oryx, Springbok, monkeys, warthogs and more.  It is a good start to our two days here.  This evening will be a game drive, followed by dinner.  Then tomorrow morning at 0500, there is a wakeup call for the early game drive.  Barb’s primary objective here is to see a Leopard in the wild.  My primary objective is to charge batteries, download many Gigabytes of pix and movies, and write blogs.  Since I get to go with Barb to great places like this, eat wonderful meals (all vegan), and drink good wines, it’s all worth it.

Leon & Barb in Kwa-Zulu Natal