Robert's Travels

The fourth day of the tour started with an early morning wake up call. We woke up at 4:45, got packed up and were having breakfast in the hotel restaurant shortly after 5:45. We were in the lobby shortly after 6:15 and were loaded into the bus and on our way to the Cape Town International Airport at 6:30 sharp. Our flight to Durban, BA 6315, was scheduled to depart at 8:55, and we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After checking our bags we had exactly 1 hour before boarding, so Todd and I wandered around the terminal and then sat and read the news for a bit before boarding.

The flight pushed back from the gate 5 minutes early, and a short while later we were airborne. The flight was scheduled to take 1 hour 45 minutes, and shortly after takeoff the cabin crew came through with a breakfast of a bacon omelette. The food was fine, however we had eaten just three hours earlier and were not terribly hungry. The flight was uneventful with only mild turbulence, and we landed at the King Shaka International Airport in Durban shortly before 11:00. We collected our bags and picked up a sandwich for lunch, then boarded a new coach. We left the airport around 11:45 - some people took longer getting food than others.

We were only on the road for about 15 minutes before the bus pulled off the highway at the Westbrook beach. This beach, located right on the Indian Ocean, gave us fantastic views of the water and a chance to take in the warmth of the Durban area. We had 15 minutes to explore the beach, take some photos, and dip our hands into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean before we were back on the bus. We pulled away from the beach just before 12:30 and continued onward.

Our destination, the St. Lucia estuary, was a 2.5 hour drive away, and the bus made good time on the trip. We ate the sandwiches we had picked up at the airport and enjoyed the scenery as the bus drove along. Partway through the drive the tour guide, Belinda, gave us an introduction to the KwaZulu-Natal province that we were driving through. She also provided some background on the Zulu people, who lived in this part of the country prior to the European colonization of South Africa. I dozed off for a bit once the info session was over, and once I woke up I started reading the novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu. We reached the estuary shortly after 15:00, disembarked from the bus and transferred to a river boat that was docked by the road.

This was the start of our river cruise through the St. Lucia estuary. As soon as we got onto the boat we were able to spot several hippos swimming near the shore opposite the boat, which was an exciting way to start things off. Once everyone was on-board and the lines were cast off the boat motored over to the hippos for a closer look. We slowed down to get a closer view of the hippos, then the boat continued north on the river. We saw several crashes of hippopotamuses as the boat drove north, and soon afterwards we saw a pair of crocodiles sunning themselves on the shore. The boat pulled closer to get a better view. The cruise continued on and we saw another crocodile, and then proceeded up the river. We saw several more crashes of hippos, playing around, always with a single dominant male and several females, occasionally we saw what appeared to be younger hippos in the group. We saw another crocodile and an eagle in the trees before we came across a large crash of hippos on the shore. This was the first time we saw a hippo that wasn’t submerged in the water, and they looked much larger than they did when only their head and the top of their back was visible. The boat turned around at this point and we enjoyed a lazy river cruise back to the dock as the sun was setting. We saw more hippos on the way back, but no more crocodiles. The boat docked just after 17:00, and the sun had just set. The last 15 minutes of the cruise gave us a fantastic view of the sun meeting the horizon - the bright orange glow of the sky was breathtaking.

After we disembarked from the boat we re-boarded the bus, which then drove us to our hotel. We were staying at the Protea Hotel just outside the town of KwaMsane. The check in process was very quick, and we got to our room at about 17:50. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant with a few of our fellow tour group members right at 18:00 - they were a mother and daughter pair from New York city. Dinner lasted for about an hour, and afterwards we returned to the room and relaxed. The hotel was a bit outside the town and in the dark there wasn’t a lot to see, so we read in the room instead. We headed to bed at 20:30; the next day was scheduled to start at 5:00 and we wanted to be well rested.