We travel a lot as a family, being expats and hubby with his
work, but what we haven’t done for a very long time is just travel to one place
as a family for a relaxing holiday. Holidays over the past 4 years have been
visiting family in the UK and car trips for long weekends in Durban, the train
to Cape Town and last year was from Joburg to Durban, the coast to Port
Elizabeth, The Garden Route, Cape Town and home via the Karoo by car.
With the 15yo visiting from the UK for his summer vacation
and it being winter in South Africa we decided to explore further north and
booked 7 nights in St Lucia, taking the dog, Bob with us.
So here are my top 6 reasons as to why you must visit St
Lucia.
Self catering accommodation with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,
enclosed gardens, a pool, air con and dog friendly. Dawn couldn’t have been any
friendlier and more welcoming and was very knowledgeable about the area. The
cost of staying there included a maid, DSTV and wi fi.
Walking
Bob had the most amazing time at St Lucia, he was able to
run freely on the beaches, we could take him into cafes and restaurants and was
welcomed by everyone, everywhere. He had
the freedom of the garden and we could leave him at the accommodation if we
wanted to go out at night or visit a local attraction. We walked through woods,
by the lake, through the town. Our only concern was when stopped by a driver
who said ‘you should be alright with the dog on a lead as there have been
Leopard sightings in the area last week’ hubby replied ‘anymore good news you
have for us?'
Although it did require plenty of baths as he rolled in hippo poo on more than one occasion.
Security Issues.
Living in Gauteng, we are very conscious about personal
security, we live in a residential estate with finger print access and 24 hour
armed guards. There is no public transport available, apart from the Gautrain
and less than 2 weeks ago the car was broken into and a case including
passports stolen, from a secure car park. Having visited Durban and Cape Town a
fortnight ago where there was no security at the hotels, we used buses, taxis
and walked to sight see, it was nice to discover another area of South Africa
where there is no security needed. However don’t switch off, there are no
fences between the town, the lake, beach and the wild life. There are plenty of
warning signs and information on keeping safe from hippos and crocodiles.
Hippo and crocodiles
We saw plenty while walking alongside the lake and shops
displayed photos of hippos visiting the town at night. We visited a crocodile
sanctuary and took a river trip to ‘get up, close and personal’ with the hippos
and the crocodiles, seeing a monitor lizard, kingfishers, African Fish Eagle
and a Blue Crane, the national bird of South Africa.
Whale Watching
We booked a tour with Advantage at the cost of R950 each. Twice
the boat trip was cancelled, before I realized it was because it was a beach
launch and not from a harbor. We were offered the chance to go from Richard’s
Bay, 40km away and the tour company would take us there to the boat, but
fortunately the seas calmed enough for us to go out on the Thursday.
It was a fast trip out over the waves and we immediately
spotted 2 Hump Back Whales in the distance and they had a young calf with them,
we followed them along with the dolphins for 2 miles up the coast towards
Mozambique and we even spotted a shark.
The boat approached the beach at 75km per hour, I braced for
impact, but the boat just glided up the sand, it was so exhilarating that I
asked if we could do it again.
Sea food and restaurants
We were spoilt for choice when it came to eating it, even
though St Lucia is a small town, apart from a Braai and the odd breakfast at
the accommodation and making up the odd picnic we ate out as and when we
fancied. The fish and sea food was amazing, couldn’t get more fresh unless we
caught it, gutted it and cooked it on the beach ourselves.
