Lake St Lucia in South Africa

Saint Lucia Estuary an exciting wetland area

A bit north of Durban on the east coast of South Africa is a great wetland area located around Lake St Lucia. The Lake near the small city St Lucia was designated a Natural World Heritage Site in 1999 as the first in South Africa. Saint Lucia Estuary is part of Greater St Lucia Waterland Park and are divided in 5 different ecosystems: The marine system includes the eastern part and 280 km coastline. Eastern shore system consists of sand dunes and forest and form a buffer between Indian Ocean and Lake St Lucia. The third system is the Lake itself. The northern part of the Lake forms its own system with a wetland area of papyrus. The Lakes western shores is the fifth system with grass plains and bush landscape.

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On our way from Johannesburg through Kruger National Park to Durban, this was a natural place to stop and enjoy Lake St Lucia. It was heavy clouds and rainy when we entered the boat and set out on Lake St Lucia. We hoped to see crocodiles and hippos. But in this weather the crocodiles went underneath the surface and the hippos came to the surface. The boats are small and they are driving very near the big groups of hippos. If we came too close they made it clear that we were not very popular. Lake St Lucia have a very rich birdlife. We were very impressed by the big African Fish Eagles and we saw many many of them.

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