On January 3, we headed up 3 hours north to the town of St. Lucia in the wetlands. We stayed in a quaint little house for 7 nights with Samuel's parents, his sister Amy, and the Farrell family (Samuel's sister Sarah and her family, who live with us on the ship). It was a time filled of laughter, games, and braais, and was extremely relaxing. While there, we celebrated Christmas as a family (just a week or so late...), complete with a delicious Christmas dinner of chicken, roast potatoes, and even yorkshire pudding and mince pies. It rained a lot, but that didn't stop us from taking walks along the beach or through the wetland park (yes, even amongst the signs that said "Beware of Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, etc" or just into the town.
While there, we took advantage of some of the more touristy activities that most people from Appelsbosch had already done. This included a safari through Hluhluwe National Park, where we saw 4 of the big 5!! The leopards, unfortunately, eluded us. The lion sighting was probably the most exciting for me. We had been to the lion park, but seeing them in the wild (and clearly watching something that they were intending to hunt) was incredible. Other animals included lots of zebra, wildebeest, various types of deer and antelope, buffalo, rhino (also very cool!), warthogs, and baboons. I was sad, however, that we only managed to see the top half of a giraffe in the distance and the backsides of 2 elephants as the walked away from us.
The most we managed to see of an elephant...
I promise those are lions!
Buffalo
Herd of wildebeest
Samuel, Amy, and I also spent an afternoon at a cat sanctuary in the area. We learned about several different types of cats (African wild cats, cervals, something else I can't remember, and cheetahs) and watched a feeding. Those cervals can jump extremely high!! As an added bonus, we were allowed into the cheetah cage during the feedings, and as long as we did not make any loud noises or run for any reason, we were permitted to touch them :)
In St. Lucia, a Hippo and Croc cruise is a must. Hippos are very prominent in the area; in fact, it was told to us that occasionally hippos have been seen walking through the town at night! We saw lots and lots of hippos in the water, and also managed to catch sight of a bunch of them walking down a bank straight into the river! That was extremely cool, seeing hippos lumbering around out of the water. We also learned some interesting facts - hippos can't swim very well, so when they get out too deep they just sink to the bottom and walk out! Who knew? :)
Our last day in St. Lucia was spent driving through the wetland park to the beach. We saw lots of animals, including rhino, zebra, kudu, springbok, and even a "penguin lizard" :) We vainly searched for an elephant, as that area is known as the Elephant Coast, but to no avail.
From St. Lucia we drove to Ballito, a town on the Dolphin Coast that we have frequented as it is only about an hour from Appelsbosch. We had a lovely big house to stay in and took advantage of our week there to spend some time at the beach! My dad arrived during this week - it was so great to see him! We took him to the World Cup Stadium in Durban to ride the Skycar for a view of Durban, as well as a stadium tour. I hadn't done the Skycar yet and was glad for the excuse to do so! We also went to the Sharks Board and saw a dissection of a great white shark, and did a game drive at Tala Game Reserve. The drive there was fabulous - the driver would literally just drive right up to the animals, regardless of where the road went! I finally saw a giraffe up close (so close, in fact, that we couldn't see his head from inside the safari car) and even got our picture with it. He drove closer to the rhinos than we had been before. And, of course, there were plenty of zebra, wildebeest, deer, and antelope :)
It was an absolutely lovely vacation, and like all good things, it went by entirely too fast. It was great to see family and spend time together, showing them what our life at Appelsbosch is like.
Now we are back to work - Samuel is going to the ship every day doing Sales work, and I have been teaching for over a week now. A bit challenging with all our supplies on the ship, but we teachers have been managing so far :) If all goes well, we will be living back onboard by Monday - pray that we are able to make a smooth transition!
