The Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal

3 to 10 April 2014

From the Garden Route, we travelled further north via Mhtata, Butterworth, Port Elisabeth and into the province of Kwazulu Natal, the land of the Zulu tribe. As we came into Margate, Ramsgate, Uvongo and Port Shepstone right on the ocean, we were greeted by a sudden tropical feeling. The forest was greener and thicker than before, with palmtrees, coconut trees, banana trees, avocado trees and pinapples on the wayside. The birds were louder and more colourful, monkeys on every other tree along the street and the temperature of the sea a lot more comfortable than the icy waters of Cape Town. Unfortunately, it looked like some investment idiots decided to spoil this lovely stretch of nature by building ugly seafront hotels, bars and amusement establishments where people eat cheap fast food rather than the fresh produce and seafood that surrounds them. Lucky for us, we headed into the hills and stayed a couple of days with Jenny and Adam, two good friends of Nicole who have set up a white water rafting company near the beautiful Mzimkhulu river and Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve. 

From Port Shepstone, we drove up to St Lucia where the final and most exciting chapter of our South African adventure started. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park is situated on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa's third-largest protected area, spanning 280 km of coastline, from the Mozambican border in the north to south of the Lake St. Lucia estuary, and made up of around 3,280 km² of natural space. It is full of unspoilt African landscape, the natural home of all those animals big and small that many of us will only ever see in the zoo. Elephants, Rhinos, Zebras, Crocodiles, Hippos, Wilderbeest, Lions, Leopards, Waterbuffalos, Giraffes, Antilopes like Kudu, Nyala, Springbok, and so many more. Apart from the big cats, we saw almost everything including close meetings with a Rhino mother and her baby. And the best thing was, for once we humans were on the inside of a fence and the animals free to run wild in their own world. We stayed at the Bushbaby lodge, a hand full of small huts just 100 meters next to a water hole that animals would visit several times a day, seperated by a wire fence with a few volts in it. By day, we drove through forest and bushland and stopped whenever we saw something moving, and that was a lot :-) 

As said before, the nature was absolutely amazing and photos won't do it justice, but we tried to take a few pics for you nonetheless.. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/110475049385279629687/KwazuluNatalSouthAfrica2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCMC_6eji9cTddQ&noredirect=1