Our first excursion outside of Durban, the LoveLayNels headed off to explore South Africa. Two and a half hours drive north along the Indian Ocean from Umhlanga is St Lucia, a smaill , safe surf town on the Eastern coast of Kwa Zulu Natal. Hluhluwe is the oldest of South Africa’s game parks and we were very excited to see the Big 5. It has been a very long time since 2008 when I enjoyed my humanitarian trip to Zambia with Mothers Without Borders and spent 5 glorious days on safari in Mfue. I’ve wanted to bring Doug back to experience the incredible bush of Africa ever since. This was a dream come true! We drove through several rural towns along the way. were We were enchanted to be passing through as the children were heading to school. So wonderful to see modest, but sturdy housing with four walls and a roof. It was exciting to see very nice schools far above the ant hill dung schools we were building in Zambia. Although the people here would not consider themselves wealthy, it was marvelous to see children in uniforms and broad smiles heading to school! Amazing to glimpse in to a typical day in real life rural Africa!
We got ghosted for two nights hunting for the hippos on Main St, St Lucia. This chubby guy was the closest we found. Probably safer that way!
We scored with an Air and B $40 a night per couple. Good work, Elder Nelson. We found Reef and Dune, with amazing African burgers, veggies and malva to dine while waiting for the hippos. Supposedly they come right along that corner on their way to the park. We can’t confirm that—-as I said— we never saw 1 hippo despite all our best efforts dining, then driving around town til the wee hours. One night we were treated to some mighty Zulu dancers, kicking their white fur chaps up over their heads. Their native dance is so captivating!