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Early start today, so it was up for coffee and lemon cream biscuits, before getting on the bus at 6.20am and heading to the estuary for an early morning boat cruise and walk along the St Lucia Estuary. This was a new adventure for us; the light was lovely, the temperature was cool but it slowly warmed up allowing us to shed one layer of clothing. By coincidence one of the guides on the boat was Brian who had taken us to Umfolozi when we were here a couple of weeks ago.
Not unsurprisingly we saw hippo (todays photo is hippos sleeping in the morning sunlight) and crocodiles, we also saw perched in a tree a fish eagle, similarly an unmistakable long crested eagle, pied and giant kingfishers, and there were several weavers flying in and out of the reeds - an indication spring is coming (autumn in the UK though)! When we moved onto the land we had to wait for buffalo with their entourage of cattle egrets to move through - as we watched them we saw kudu and then waterbuck in the distance; we also found a c*** tail ants nest and watched them trying to protect the acacia they were on - any unsuspecting browser would get a shot of acid from their cocked their tails to reduce their invasion of the plant!
After a really nice start to the day the rest of the day was ours - most went on the heritage tour to Cape Vidal which we did when we here previously - we however decided on a leisurely shower and a walk into town. As it was now a lovely warm day the 25 minute walk was really enjoyable -first stop was the trek shop to look at zip off trousers (I left my others in Swaziland because in short mode the zip scratched my leg - and drew blood ), next stop was for coffee and muffin - followed by a trip to the camera shop and the purchase of a universal charger for my camera battery as I had left my other at Modogi lodge on our second night. We made a few other purchases, including another case so I can split my luggage to make it easier- I hope- to get across London on our return, and finally we had a banoffee ice cream sundae before heading back and arriving at the campsite at 3pm. We had bought another muffin - cinnamon and apple to have with a cup of tea ( and to take one of our final malaria tablets with which we had forgotten to take at breakfast.)
While dinner was being prepared we went to the beach to look at the birds - the wind was now very strong and while trying to take pictures I became covered in sand - this required another shower before dinner. The others returned from their drive - their highlight had been a two week old baby rhino which must have been born since we were here last. Anyway it seemed we had all had a successful and rewarding day.
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