iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Today we got up at 6:30 am, because we wanted to go to the above mentioned park early. Michelle, our host, prepared breakfast for us at this time. Today, I wanted to try toast with a sweet spread. Between the two jars of jam, there was another jar filled with a black spread. Hmmmm, cane syrup. I loaded a spoonful of it onto my plate. But I was already wondering why the substance was a bit firmer than what we have, oh well, it must be African or maybe plum jam after all. I spread the toast extra thick and took a big bite with enjoyment. Exactly the big bite that I took flew in a high arc into the napkin. Eeeeeeeeeeeeew, what is that. Daniela burst out laughing. Michelle said it's for fried sausages. She also laughed when she saw my toast. Oh no, you can't eat it like that, maybe just a dab for the sausages!!! .... That's enough about breakfast.

The drive to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park was very pleasant. The gate was only 3 km away from us. The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 and is known for its hippos and various landscapes :-)! The park area is huge, with endless horizons, and here too there are paved and unpaved roads. The Big Five live in the park and whales and great white sharks can be spotted at Cape Vidal.

We mainly wanted to see hippos, lions and whales. At the beginning, we spotted a small group of zebras, followed by two rhinos. Although we had already seen the animals in the other park, it is always indescribable to spot and observe them. We were both very excited once again. Then the signpost showed us a loop. We followed it. The path was unpaved and a real torture for the car and me. At times, I thought we would have a broken axle, the potholes were so bad. We drove there in slow motion. Then there was a water hole with signs saying 'No getting out - hippos & crocodiles'! We drove very slowly along the small lake and suddenly several hippos appeared. Mega!!! They are so cute, it's unbelievable that these creatures are actually dangerous. It was with a heavy heart that we had to tear ourselves away from these adorable animals with their little button ears. The landscape was also simply fantastic. The vast savannah, in the middle of it a small water hole/lake with hippos swimming or dozing among water lilies and reeds. Well then, the bumpy ride continued.

We often veered off the paved road. For us it was clear that if we wanted to see lions or more hippos, we could only do so on the loops. There was fresh elephant dung and urine on a stretch of road! For us it was certain, we will see the pachyderms soon! We suspected them behind every curve. They didn't show up, but the road conditions got even worse. Daniela had to get out at times and push over fallen little trees. I really thought we would end up stranded somewhere in the wilderness. On one loop, it was indicated at the beginning '18 Km One Way'. On this road, you could see a path of destruction caused by elephants. I started to panic a little, I really didn't want to see elephants here, because I wouldn't be able to reverse or evade. But somehow we always made it through.

At many viewpoints, there was a sign saying 'Exit at your own risk'. I'll be honest, every crackling in the bushes made me nervous, but also Daniela. You really do not know what to expect. As Martina said, the animals smell us long before we notice them :-)!

Then we walked to a lake and Daniela said, look a hippo. No way, that's a huge rock! Nope, it was actually a very large hippo with a gigantic behind and it looked like the aforementioned rock. The lake was fantastic. There was a snowy white sandy beach around it and there were water lilies and various grasses in the lake. We were also very impressed by the landscape here.

The journey continued to Cape Vidal. We parked our little off-road vehicle :-) in the shade and walked barefoot to the beach. From afar, we could already see the water spouts of the whales. It was incredible how many of them were swimming in the water. Their spouts shot up into the air over and over again. One whale even jumped out of the water with half of its body. Oh, how beautiful, we strolled along the beach for a while and enjoyed the salty sea air. It was incredibly relaxing and we could recover from the hardships of the bumpy roads. Every now and then there were thick, slippery, blue jellyfish on the beach, they looked pretty gross.

About an hour later, we were back in our car. We still wanted to see lions. But even on the next long loop, we couldn't spot them. Even though we, the two safari experts ;-) were sure that they would be in this special landscape, our keen eyes couldn't find a cat. But we did see many other animals, including a huge herd of buffalo. The sight was gigantic.

On our way back, we stopped at the first water hole again. There were even more hippos there and they made sounds, it was incredible. We waved goodbye to them :-) and returned to the gate.

During our meal at the restaurant, the power went out in the city. This was the second power outage we experienced in South Africa. The first outage happened in the evening at the bush lodge, it was quite eerie because we couldn't see anything there anymore and we lived quite off the beaten path. We could only hear the animal sounds from the bush. It wasn't quite as creepy in the city, but still a strange feeling to be without power.

In that sense, many greetings from the safari girls :-)!