Day 4: Durban/St. Lucia Estuary Game Viewing Cruise

On day 6, we flew to Durban in the morning. Upon disembarking from the plane, we boarded a comfortable coach bus for the day trip to Hluhluwe. Driving to our destination was an excellent opportunity to see the beautiful African countryside up close while our tour guide, Sean, educated us South African culture and history.

This is our tour guide Sean giving us the run down on our snack boxes. The African snacks were tasty.

What do you drink after getting thirsty from your snacks? You grab some African wat-aah of course!

As we drove through the countryside, we saw miles and miles of sugar cane and other produce growing along the roadside. We learned that 90% of the produce grown in S. Africa is exported. Crystalized sugar is the biggest export.

Workers harvest the cane by hand which seems unfathomable considering the amount of sugar cane that we saw growing.

We saw some burned sugar cane fields. It's a controlled exercise that's done after the harvest to kill ticks and improve soil quality. It also makes the cane sweeter.

Well, these are signs that you don't readily see outside of Africa.

These trees are another Australian species that's not native to the region. They're called Fever trees because early Dutch settlers would sleep under them and get sick with fever. As a result, they erroneously concluded that the trees were the root cause of the illness. In fact, mosquitos were the true culprit, but the name stuck. The trunk of the tree has a green tint because they synthesize through the bark instead of the leaves. They're also drought resistant which makes them well suited for the dry African climate.

 All along the drive typical homes like these dot the landscape. Notice the round, traditional South African style home. Those homes are called rondavels and are common in the Zulu region of S. Africa. Even S. Africans that live in western style homes will still have a small rondavel in the back of the house that they use for praying and spiritually connecting with ancestors.

Durban has the largest Indian population outside of India. Gandhi arrived in Durban, Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) in 1893. On a rail trip, Gandhi was seated in the first-class compartment, as he had purchased a first-class ticket. A White person who entered the compartment summoned the White railway officials, who ordered Gandhi to remove himself to the van compartment, since non-whites were not permitted in first-class compartments. Gandhi protested and produced his ticket, but was warned that he would be forcibly removed if he did not make a gracious exit. As Gandhi refused to comply with the order, a White police officer pushed him out of the train, and his luggage was tossed out on to the platform. The train steamed away, and Gandhi withdrew to the waiting room. He began to think of his "duty": should he stay back and fight for his "rights", or should he return to India?

M.K Gandhi spent about 20 years in South Africa, predominantly in the Natal area. His experiences in South Africa are considered the formative years of his international passive resistance stance against discrimination, and many sites in Durban and surrounding areas are dedicated to his political and social influence.

As you drive through S. Africa, you can't miss or ignore the miles and miles of forest. What's special about this collection of trees is that it's the world's largest man made forest. Each tree was hand planted and together consume a lot of land that's government owned by S.A.P.P.I (South African Pulp and Paper Industry).

Hluhluwe this way, but beware of the Hippos.

It was overcast the day that we visited the St. Lucia wetland so it was perfect conditions for hippo gazing. We took a boat cruise along the estuary and got up close and personal with the hippos. Crocodiles prefer the exact opposite conditions of Hippos so they weren't in abundance during our trip, but were were fortunate to see one.

 The views along the estuary were pretty amazing.

What hippos make up for in size they lack in smarts. They're small brain is what makes them so dangerous. If they're grazing on land and get spooked, then they will make a beeline for the water and trample anything or anyone standing in the way.

 African fish eagle

The lone nile crocodile that we spotted on our trip.