Guest Post: ‘The Town of St Lucia’ by Nick van de Wiel

Hi everyone,

It is time for post number two on the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and today I’d like to show you some images taken in and around the little town of St. Lucia.

This cozy little town is situated in the southernmost part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and claims to be the only town that its enveloped in its entirety by a World Heritage Site. or National Park.

That fact obviously makes one wonder: “How about wild animals in and outside the town, how does that work?” A very legitimate question, with an interesting answer: It all works out fine, except for the fact that about 1 person per year gets eaten by a crocodile! The town is bordered by the ocean on the East, by the estuary on the South and West, and the so called: “Eastern Shores”, which my previous post discussed, lies to the North of it.

There is a fence between the town and the Eastern Shores, to make sure the Elephants, Buffalo, Rhino and alike do not wander off into town to cause havoc. That said, we do have hippos roaming the streets of St. Lucia at night, and many establishments in town that are bordering the estuary have both hippos and crocodiles in their ‘garden’, and sometimes the latter make their nests there!

Then there is the birdlife: Given the high diversity of habitats, including the ocean and its beaches, the estuary and the various grasslands, wetlands and coastal dune forest patches bordering the town, we have a remarkable diversity of birds fluttering around our gardens here. “Our” gardens, because St. Lucia is indeed where I live, and I am loving it. Why?

See the photos below to get an idea of what we, and the many visitors to the town, get to see about every other day or so .

As a keen naturalist and photographer, these are scenes I never get tired of seeing.

Hippo getting upset in the Estuary.

Fish Eagle flying by.

A crocodile (one of the about 2000 adult crocodiles in the estuary/lake) basking on a sand bank.

Hippo’s doing what they do best.

A crocodile leaving the water with fishermen in the background.

Plenty of bats here in town. This is the Wahlberg’s epauletted fruit-bat hanging on the ceiling of our verandah.

Juvenile crocodiles often shelter and huddle up together.

The sun sets over the estuary, with the wakes from our boat adding some interesting pattern to the photo.

From Main Beach, one has a lovely view on Maphelane Dune, with 184 meters high being the second highest vegetated sand dune in the world.

Bees, like almost everywhere else in the world, also pollinate our flowers here

To conclude this post, please feel welcome to come and visit St Lucia. It is an excellent base from which to explore the region, including the Eastern Shores of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park. Activities in St Lucia include fishing, whale watching, turtle viewing, game viewing, birdwatching, kayaking on the estuary amongst 800 hippos and 2000 crocodiles, enjoying the beaches and of course photography!

The next post, after about a month or so, will discuss and show the lesser known “Western Shores” of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Keep well you all, and chat to you next time.

Kind Regards,

Nick van de Wiel

Nick’s Links:

- Website: Tailormade Safaris