July | 2015 | DeWetsWild

Today a very popular picnic and fishing spot north of St. Lucia Town in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Mission Rocks is named for a Catholic mission station established in the area in 1888. The path leading from the parking area to the beach opens onto a scene of rugged, rocky beauty, revealing rock pools teeming with life at low tide and impressing with the thundering of crashing waves at high tide. There’s a sandy, open beach 500m northwards of the rocks, with a sea-cave where thousands of bats roost.

Mission Rocks

Mission Rocks picnic spot

Mission Rocks

de Wet family shadows at Mission Rocks

Mission Rocks

Keep an eye open for the vervet monkeys while having a picnic at Mission Rocks

Natal Rock Crab at Mission Rocks

Mission Rocks

Fiscal flycatcher

On the way to Mission Rocks, the uMziki viewpoints and picnic site, set right in the coastal forest, is a worthwhile stop. From atop the dune there’s views over Lake Saint Lucia to the west and the Indian Ocean to the east, and down below in the forested picnic site there’s an astounding variety of birds that would normally be very shy but here seems quite habituated to having humans around. There’s also usually a couple of red duiker to be seen.

uMziki viewpoint over Lake Saint Lucia

uMziki viewpoint over Indian Ocean

uMziki viewpoint

Golden-tailed woodpecker

White-eared barbet

Livingstone’s turaco

Red-capped robin-chat

Red duiker

Lake Saint Lucia is the core of a vast ecosystem, rightfully included in South Africa’s first designated World Heritage Site, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The Crocodile Centre, managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife at the Bhangazi Gate into the Park, and the self-guided trails in the adjacent game park, offers an excellent introduction to this Park of “miracles and wonders” (the English meaning of the isiZulu word iSimangaliso). It also has the best stocked curio shop in town and a lovely tea garden.

Educational displays at the Crocodile Centre

Cycad garden

Curio shop

Wildlife abounds in the game park next to the Crocodile Centre, this is a warthog

Wildlife abounds in the game park next to the Crocodile Centre, this is a mixed herd of blue wildebeest and plains zebra

Of course the crocodiles, an integral part of the lake’s ecological functioning, are the star attractions. On display are not only specimens of our indigenous Nile Crocodiles ranging in size from newly hatched babies to “monsters” over 4m in length, but the centre also houses Dwarf and Slender-Snouted Crocodiles from tropical Africa and a couple of American Alligators. You can also try your hand at spotting another of iSimangaliso’s very secretive inhabitants, the extremely venomous and expertly camouflaged Gaboon Adder.

St. Lucia Crocodile Centre

Nile crocodile

American Alligator

Nile Crocodile

Nile crocodile

Gaboon adder (captive)

Dwarf Crocodile

Slender-snouted Crocodile

The centre’s beautiful gardens are a magnet for other wildlife, and we always get a kick from the humorous signs (to us, anyway).

Better heed the signs!

Black-bellied Starling

Better heed the signs!

Olive Sunbird

Vervet monkey

Saint Lucia is a unique town, located on a wedge of land at the mouth of Lake St. Lucia, between the lake and the Indian Ocean, and entirely surrounded by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. All kinds of wildlife roam the town, including hippopotamus and leopard. Right in town, a magnificent piece of coastal forest can be explored along the Gwalagwala Trail. A number of private operators offer guided tours of the area, and several launch-tours operate on the estuary. Two camping areas and a host of privately run establishments offers overnight accommodation, and the town has most of the facilities you’d expect (shops, restaurants, doctor, fuel station, boat club, picnic sites), making St. Lucia an excellent base for a bush-and-beach holiday.