March 21, 2025

We awoke today with a bit of trepidation, considering all the things we were warned about that could go wrong. Happily, the harbor pilot arrived by helicopter with no incident and huge lines causing a backlog with the immigration people didn’t materialize. Our day started out great, that is until we opened the curtains. We were met with the view of “thousands of tons” of coal per Tod the engineer. We were moored next to a coal loading area where dozens of trucks, railroad cars and heavy equipment were either loading or unloading ungodly amounts of coal. The prevailing wind seemed favorable to us until we walked down the gangway, and the dust kicked up in our faces. This was giving the odor of the tuna processing plant in the Seychelles a run for its money as to being unpleasant. Luckily, we had been wearing masks on all our excursions to fend off coughers, so we had them handy to put on as we searched for our bus to take us to Lake St. Lucia and the iSimangaliso wetlands, about 1 ½ hour ride up the coast to the north of us. The weather was stellar with bright sunshine through the dust and about 78F.

The bus was the nicest we’d had since we started our trip, with blasting AC and tons of leg room. We headed toward the back, took our places and prepared for our drive. Our “tour guide” was more like some guy that said something occasionally as opposed to the running commentary we’d had in past excursions. He didn’t really give us too much information about the area, but I did learn a few things between him and Wikipedia. The bajillion tons of coal that was being loaded was going to Europe. We passed countless miles of fields of super tall, thin “gum” (eucalyptus) trees originally brought over from Australia. They are grown now as a crop, live for about 6-10 years until they are cut and destined for a paper mill nearby. Other crops include sugar cane, cashews, avocados, bananas and pineapple. The main spoken language is Zulu by far (80%) although all the signs were in English. In this province called KwaZulu-Natal, the population is 85% black African, 9% Indian, White 4% and the rest is everyone else. These percentages pretty much reflect the entire country. *

It was a fascinating drive with our driver certainly not sparing the horses. The freeways were beautiful and in great condition. The landscape was very flat and many of the plants scattered along the highway were ones we would commonly find in California. I spotted 3 stunning South African ostriches that were jet black with their contrasting coveted white wing feathers grazing with about 5 horses in a pasture. For me this generated a “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment. Then the guy confirmed my response by pointing to a small ridge and said casually that you could often see elephants up there. Everyone gasped, jumped to attention and pulled out their cameras in anticipation, but alas, no pachyderm sightings today as the driver continued bombing down the road at easily 80mph.

We turned off the freeway in about an hour to a local road that gave us a closer glimpse as to how the real locals lived. There were pleasant little homes and farms and some that were of the poorer variety but certainly nothing like the 3rd world types of houses we saw in Malaysia. High unemployment in the area necessitated people to sell fruits, vegetables and handmade items by the side of the road.

Soon we arrived at the embarkation point, and our dock and vessel were hidden behind 10-foot-high reeds. Everything appeared sturdy enough, but we did have a slight concern while boarding when we were instructed to write our names and indicate our “next of kin” contact information on a clipboard. We raised our eyebrows but no one else seemed concerned so we scratched each other’s names on the sheet and went to secure places near the front of the boat. Our skipper announced that not only was this home to the largest collection of hippos in SA, but there were also 2000 Nile crocodiles. Tod immediately whispered to me “but how do they KNOW there are 2000?” to which I rolled my eyes and shrugged. In addition, the skipper said, we were entering an estuary (where the fresh water of the river is met by sea water) so there was a regular influx of sharks with the tides. We looked at each other and gulped.

After a contingent of Americans from some land-based tour boarded, the engines started. The skipper gave a short “safety briefing” by pointing to some randomly scattered life preservers Tod estimated to be from the ‘80s stuffed at various spots and not nearly enough for all on board. He demonstrated how to put them over your head and how to tie them on. He then told us that the water was only a couple of meters deep so if anyone went overboard, just be sure to grab your cell phone and take a selfie because it was the last one you’d ever take. HARDEE HAR HAR! Everyone kind of looked at each with a nervous ‘heh, heh, heh’ and we puttered at a slow speed out into a wide channel lined on both sides with the giant reeds and palm trees. We both agreed it looked very similar to a scene straight out of the film “The African Queen”.

Before coming on the trip Tod had read that remarkably hippos kill more people in Africa annually than any other animal. Apparently, they come out of the water at night to graze and people who accidentally encounter them in the dark invariably experience a negative outcome.

Our 2-hour cruise was a fabulous and unforgettable experience! We didn’t see even one of the reported 2000 Nile crocodiles, but the 30 plus hippos we did see made up for it. We made it back to the ship without incident and I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

*It is impossible to set foot in South Africa for any length of time (or any country for that matter) without hearing a political opinion. Tod and I have currently given up politics and our abstinence will undoubtably extend far into the future. We have determined, to borrow from the film “Casablanca”, that our political opinions don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. ;)

Only a partial view of what we woke up to

Typical Zulu house. Most have the round outer houses which have spiritual significance.

Selling handmade baskets by the side of the road

View of the surrounding countryside. Most houses have these green rain catchment barrels

Mama and baby

Richards Bay, South Africa

Durban, South Africa

Sea Day #5 Indian Ocean