iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa’s first World Heritage Site, is named after the isiZulu word meaning “Miracle” and “Wonder”. Our recent visit to the Park just reminded us again what an appropriate name that is.
Having visited the Western Shores in December last year, we focused our attention during our June visit on the Eastern Shores section of the Park, a diverse area lying between the Indian Ocean in the east, Lake Saint Lucia in the west, St. Lucia town and the lake’s estuary to the south and incorporating the popular destinations of Mission Rocks and Cape Vidal, where we stayed for three nights. The sunrises and sunsets alone made the trip worthwhile!
As always, the game and bird-viewing on the Eastern Shores could only be described as splendid, but the Park is clearly not escaping the ravages of the drought that has Kwazulu-Natal Province in a firm choke hold, and none of the pans close to the roads held any water. Indeed a stark contrast to the lush oases of reeds and waterlilies these waterholes normally are, complete with hippos, crocodiles and wading birds in residence. Even the Mfazana Pans, where there’s a brilliant photographic hide, was little more than an almost-dry puddle of mud.
We seem to have extraordinary luck with finding leopards here and this trip was no exception, with no less than four sightings of these beautiful cats. A late afternoon sighting of a serval, a much smaller but also spotted cat, being chased by a group of lapwings as it crossed a burnt field, was a very pleasant surprise. Unfortunately we didn’t see anything more than a footprint of iSimangaliso’s spotted hyenas during this visit. On the other side of the scale, a tiny snake, the variegated slug eater, was a first-ever encounter for us and one we’ll remember just as long as any of the leopard sightings.
We can never spend enough time at this wonderful place, and you’ll understand that we were not at all pleased that our long weekend flew past in the blink of an eye. Time to start making plans for the next visit then…
The Bhangazi gate into the Eastern Shores of Lake Saint Lucia lies roughly 640km South-East of Pretoria.
(Drawn using Google Maps)
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Reblogged this on Roaring Reservations.
Wonderful series, and a place I’ll be sure to visit when I return someday. The Kudu is so majestic. And what a lucky dog you are seeing a serval!
Thanks Michael! This definitely was a most memorable visit to iSimangaliso, and I can only imagine the kind of photographs you’ll collect on a trip there 😉
Magical, love these virtual visits through your lens. Mr Cool Baboon sitting up the tree caught my attention! Bit of a worry about the drought though, and read your comments above.
Thank you very much for visiting St. Lucia with us, Wilf!
Fantastiese foto’s De Wet. Dankie vir die deel van hierdie wonderlike natuurskoon. 😀
Ons is baie bly dat ons jou aan n nuwe stukkie paradys kon voorstel, Sonel! Dankie vir nog n gawe kompliment!
Dis ‘n plesier en hopelik sal ek eendag my motorhome hê en dan al daardie plekke gaan besoek. Intussen sal ek laat my oë hul vergryp aan jou pragfoto’s en ‘virtual travelling’ doen. 😆
Dit klink na n blink plan, Sonel!
Such a wonderful display of wildlife and sunsets. Beautiful, a little piece of heaven. The leopard is absolutely stunning, what a fascinating cat:)
Glad to know you liked your visit here at de Wets Wild so much, Inger. Welcome, and thank you for the kind contribution to our blog.
Mooi soos gewoonlik
Baie dankie Tina, ons waardeer dit!
Yes , both miracle and wonder:) Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for visiting the Eastern Shores with us, Lakshmi!
Beautiful photos…
Thank you, Boeta!
The wildlife is astounding!
iSimangaliso’s one of our most diverse wildlife areas – I’m glad to know our pictures could showcase a small part of it, Montucky!
Lovely post. I have just read an in-depth analysis of the water situation as it affects that region. It gives great cause for concern, but it is heartening to see the immense effort which is being put into trying to control the situation.
Thanks C. Indeed a worry, taking into consideration that the previous drought stretched over 8 years and only ended in 2010 – one wonders to what extent the groundwater has been replenished. Thankfully most of those very thirsty pine and eucalyptus plantations have been removed…
Had they not been, I think the drought would have done the job!