"Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park " a Lake Saint Lucia Travel Page by Waxbag

Lake St. Lucia is the largest estuary in Africa and one of the largest in the world. The Greater St. Lucia Wetland Reserve is the third largest park in South Africa stretching from St. Lucia Resort north to Sodwana Bay and then up to the Mozambique boarder. It includes Mkhuze game reserve, Phinda game reserve, False Bay Park as well as Cape Vidal. The lake system is a heritage site contains 5 distinct ecosystems. It is mostly a shallow lake system that is packed with fish that of course brings all the birds. This park is home to about 1000 hippos, 2000 crocodile, as well as a variety of antelope including red duiker, common duiker, wildebeest, reedbuck, bushbuck, and impala. Other animals such as zebra, warthog, mongoose, black rhino, leopard, monitor lizards, vervet monkeys, bush babies, and the rare samango monkey may be spotted. Birds here are fantastic! Particularly interesting are the fish eagles, goliath heron, pinked back pelican, oyster catchers, and the natal robin to name a few.

The many reserve around are quite accessible by vehicle such as Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserves, Mkhuze Game Reserve, Cape Vidal, False Bay Park, Phinda Game Reserve and Sodwana Bay. St. Lucia Resort is a great place to use as a base for excursions. There is plenty to do in St. Lucia Resort with ample accommodation, stores to get supplies, and some nice restaurants.

Unfortunately, due to an oil spill the mouth of the lake system has been completely closed from the sea. Even though the threat of the oil pollution is no longer a threat the lake is several meters below sea level. If the sand blockade were broken the sea would pour into the lake and severely imbalance the salinity level. St. Lucia Lake needs a lot more rain to stabilize the level so that it may once again reach the sea.

Here is a croc up close and personal. I love the texture of their skin.

Check out some of the other game reserves close by. Hluhluwe, Imfolozi, and Mkuze Game Reserves are excellent. The bird viewing in these parks are among the best and you will excellent opportunities to see white rhino and maybe even wild dog. The hides in these parks are the best I have ever seen.

At this time of year the water in lake St. Lucia was cold so the hippos would often be seen out of water.

I don't know whether to take this sign seriously or not. It is definately one of the funniest signs I have seen. I saw it one a web site recently of funniest signs.
You can see this one at the Croc Center in St. Lucia.

Crazy!