St. Lucia’s Game Park Trails

Just a little to the north of the town of St. Lucia, right at the Crocodile Centre and the Bhangazi Gate into the Eastern Shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, is a small game reserve where visitors are allowed to walk and cycle unguided and at own risk – hippos and leopards count among the game park’s inhabitants after all. Hikers have a choice of trails, several kilometers in extent, that lead through and along most of the important habitats that are found in the greater Park – swamps and marshes, grasslands, woodland and forests. I packed in a couple of hikes through St. Lucia’s Game Park while visiting the town at the end of October and into early November and, as you can tell from these pictures, I was not disappointed!

Spur-winged Geese

One of the lily-grown pans in the St. Lucia Game Park

Spectacled Skimmer Dragonfly (male)

Blue Pansy butterfly

Common Moorhen

Yellow-billed Egret

One of the lily-grown pans in the St. Lucia Game Park

White-backed Ducks

Yellow-throated Longclaw in display flight

Grassland scenery in the St. Lucia Game Park

September Bush blossoms

Candy-striped Crinum flowers

Impala Rams

Impala rams on the run

Dung Beetle

I’ve not yet identified these daisy-like blossoms

I am having difficulty identifying these blooms photographed in the grasslands of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Spotted Joker Butterfly

Plains Zebras

Red Duiker

Common Bush Brown Butterfly

Flying Handkerchief – male Mocker Swallowtail butterfly

Variable Diadem Butterfly

Spectacled Skimmer Dragonfly female

White-backed Duck

If you are interested in visiting St. Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, remember that De WetsWild can assist you with reservations in the Eden Park and Sugarloaf Campsites in town or at wonderful Cape Vidal set on the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Shores section of the Park.