Lidiko Lodge Saint Lucia

... thinking it was Debbie's greatest wish, but she was not bothered and reached for her book, leaving me to contend with the expectant caretakers and a small group of sheltered elephants.
We were the only ones there...........ja, so off I went, utterly embarrassed, one of the helpers holding my camera, snapping away happily while I hate, hate having my picture taken. But onward and forward for I had my fingers up the elephant's nostrils and he would tread on my ...

... just one.

We started a game drive at 4 pm, and that gave us only an hour before the sun disappeared behind the hills. We didn’t have a great viewing experience until the end of our 3 hours when we saw a group of 40 buffalo along the road and all around us, and then another group of 20 a little farther on. The spotlights helped us see them, and my flash let me get some decent photos. We also saw:

White Rhinos - 2

Zebra ...

... Stink beyond stink. In fact we were both almost puking. Anyway, they showed us thier social skills, meeting each other, with a definate heirarcy. Incredible stuff to see. In a flash, the dominant female barked, and the pack was gone, hunting. We were lucky to have seen this rare sighting.

I don't think anything can top what we saw 1/2 an hr ago. now, where's the leopard? Then we will have seen the Big five...

... s. Drove to St Lucia, which has become a very commercialised little seaside town. Very nice, and seems to be where the Mtuba people now do all the shopping, banking etc, as Mtuba is soooo third world! Drove back to Durbs on Friday morning, and took a short stop at the Sharks Cage (the Natal rugby teams shop), to buy a few things, before getting to my aunts house where we stayed until we left Natal.

... up a healer, who told us about the traditional remedies and she also offered to predict our future and give us advice. The futures for both of us apparently look bright and we'll have happy, healthy and long lives but Dom should start running every morning and I should start praying. Hmm. We also did a little Zulu dance with the healer, was fun(ny). We then visited different types of huts in the village, including the ...

... t Portuguese), but he still abandoned it, and the lodge was shut down. Some of the building were not even finished being built, and all are restorable. There is also a tomb there of the owner's wife and child who died there giving birth to the child. The island is named after her. We spent one very relaxing afternoon there in total privacy having a bbq fire on the beach, cooking giant oysters that we picked fresh from the rocks, swimming and just plain relaxing. We went to two other ...

... switch from Dutch to English to Afrikaan languages with such ease. We observed many hippos in their natural habitat; standing and flipping on to their backs. It is quite funny to see legs coming out of the water as the hippos grunt, spray water through their nostrils, yawn to get air in their lungs and simply hang out. Hippos do not swim or float. They travel by walking on the bottom of their watery domains. They graze during the day and must walk ...

... the afternoon on the internet finishing off uploading photos, had dinner and chatted to the guys in the bar for a bit - quite a dull day really!! Saturday 3rd: I went for a massage and reflexology today....and it was great!! Then I went for lunch and for a wander around the shops before heading to the Monkey bar next door to the hostel for their tequilla promotion. The guys from my hostel were supposed to be there but they weren ...

... here. It is raining all throughout South Africa right now, so we decided there is not much point moving to another place just to sit in the rain. So we have spent a lot of time on the internet catching up the blog. We have walked around the town here, it's quite a nice place to wander, and is even safe to do so at night, crime wise anyways, just have to watch out for the hippos! We have a self catering unit with a ...

Après une matinée plutôt calme (ping-pong, si si), nous voilà partis dans l'après-midi pour Le Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park - Eastern Shore. Ça consiste à monter dans le plus gros 4x4 que j'aie jamais vu -avec un nouveau fou furieux du volant, mais là c'est pas grave, vu les roues on peut vraiment passer PARTOUT- et à se balader dans la parc qui touche le village de St Lucia ...