Our journey across Africa continued with our next stop in St. Lucia, South Africa. It was an early morning and then a long drive, mostly in the rain before arriving at our hotel in village of St. Lucia, in the Province of Kwazulu-Natal. After check-in, we joined our travel friends for an evening of learning about the Zulu culture. Our fun included a short lesson in the some Zulu language common phrases, followed by a traditional Zulu
dance (Robert even participated) and a traditional Zulu dinner. The dinner was a thin steak, sausage, pop (African dish of maze meal) with vegetables sauce and fresh vegetables. We enjoyed dinner and went straight to bed with anticipation of events for the next day.
The next morning started very early leaving the hotel at 5:00am. Our safari guides were there to greet us and take us to Hluhlwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. It was a very cold and damp drive. They picked us up in the safari trucks and took us the 1 hour to the reserve. But WOW, it was worth it. Our drive started into the park just after sunrise. The views were spectacular. Hluhlwe offers a completely different landscape than Kruger 
National Park, with rolling hills and long range of site across the land. The reserve is home to the Big 5 as well as many other animal species. Hluhwe is widely recognized for it’s dedication to the preservation of both White and Black rhinos. Poaching is a huge threat to the animals and at the reserve they work very hard to protect them. So much in fact that the all rhinos found in Kruger National Park have bloodlines connected directly to the rhinos in Hluhwe. We benefited greatly from the number of rhinos in the reserve and saw more of them than we could count.
After an amazing six hour game drive, we were taken back to our hotel for a short break before ending our day with a two hour sunset cruise at the St. Lucia estuary. We were lucky to see both crocodiles and hippos. It was totally incredible to see hippos so close. Our boat captain was great and took us as close as 10 feet. At times the hippos were even interacting with boat. Check out some of our photos below:
Our next stop took us to the coastal city of Durban, South Africa. What a stark difference it was from all of the places we have been so far. The city was crowed and dirty. The people on the street were not happy to see a large truck full of tourists passing through. One pedestrian even flipped us off! We were relieved when we arrived at our beach-side hotel. Our guide was sure to tell us not to venture out of the hotel unless we were in a large group as the city is not all safe for us. We decided to all stick together and head the famous Indian Market. There was 14 of us that crammed into a taxi van. The market was located under an overpass stretching out on both side of the street. Almost everything you can imagine was for sale; clothing, electronics, fruits and veggies, meats, old DVDs, etc. It was interesting but not the best market we have been to in our travels.
That evening we gathered in the hotel lobby and waited for another taxi van to pick us 
up. While waiting, one of our friends told us that he was walking along the beach and was approached by people impersonating police officers. They tried to get him into their van but he was able to get away and run back to the hotel. He was very shaken up and we were sufficiently scared not go leave without our guide again. The taxi van arrived and took us to Moyo, a restaurant at uShaka Marine World. We have a big group dinner to celebrate the 4 people leaving the tour the next morning.
Before l
eaving Durban the next morning, a group of us went across the street to the beach for a quick swim. Robert was very excited to swim in the Indian Ocean for the first time. Several others joined him, while I stayed on the beach with the girls. I did venture in to get my feet wet.
Our morning drive took us into the Drakensberg Mountains. The drive was great in the morning and filled with rain and lightening in the afternoon. We have been lucky that the rainy days have all been when we are driving in the truck. We made several stops our way. First stop was at Howick Falls and second at Nelson Mandela’s Capture Site. We walked through the temporary museum and walked to the beautiful statue erected in his honor. Then we continued our drive and arrived at the Ukhahlamba Park in the Drakensburg Mountains. /span>
The next day started with a two hour hike to see cave paintings. It was very interesting to see the painting from so many years ago and learn some history of the people who lived there from our guide. Following our morning walk, Robert and I had a wonderful afternoon which included a trip to the resort spa for a couples massage (roughing it in Africa!). Then we had a blast jumping on the trampolines near the pool.
The week ends with a full day of travel, making the 460 kilmoeter drive from Drakensburg Mountains to the Kingdom of Lesotho. We had a picnic lunch along the way and pass through the border crossing. The lines were insane! But we finally made it through and into the Kingdom of Lesotho. Our adventure continues high in the mountains…