Richards Bay (Monday, February 15)

We had an uneventful night and an on-time arrival at Richards Bay.  By 8:30 we were off the ship, aboard a bus and on our way north to St. Lucia.  We learned along the way that in addition to exporting a tremendous amount of coal and various minerals, the region had a huge sustainable lumber industry. 

Of more specific interest in light of today’s tour, we learned that this part of South Africa has been in a prolonged drought.  The river in the picture below should be shore-to-shore and several feet deep at this time of year.  Worse, the dry season is about to begin, so water will become increasingly scarce over the coming months.

Our tour today was to St. Lucia Wetlands Park – now known as iSimangaliso Wetland Park.  Hippopotami are prominent inhabitants of the park. Sufficient water in which to immerse themselves is critical to their way of life.  Fortunately, the water in the estuary is partly an inflow from the Indian Ocean, but the lack of fresh water will keep the combined salt/fresh water level in the estuary low. 

Hippos are herbivores that come ashore at night to forage for food.  The absence of a barrier between the estuary and the town of St. Lucia, necessitates unusual signage.

It also necessitates caution.  Although the big wooden one in front of the souvenir shop looks friendly, hippos are extremely dangerous.  They will attack when they feel they are cornered or their pathway to the water is blocked.  Their jaws slam shut with six tons of force.  More people die from hippo attacks than from the other members of the ‘big five’ (lion, elephant, water buffalo and rhinoceros) combined.  For residents of St. Lucia, going outside to chase a hippo out of your garden can be a fatal mistake.

Hippos will also attack anything that threatens them in the water, so swimming to get something dropped overboard was contra-indicated.  Anyone requiring more convincing did not need to look around for long to see a large crocodile.

Arms and legs inside the boat, we headed out into the estuary.  During our time afloat we saw lots of hippos, some crocodiles, a kudo, as assorted birds including several magnificent fish hawks that look very similar to a bald eagle.

Richards Bay being our last post call in South Africa, when we returned aboard INSIGNIA we had to present ourselves to immigration officials, passports in hand.  There are always some people who believe that multiple written and verbal reminders that something is “mandatory” and applies to “all passengers” do not apply to them.  There was the inevitable announcement asking various stateroom numbers to please complete the process, followed by the equally predictable announcement asking a smaller number of the same staterooms to do so, followed by a third announcement for the last two staterooms. 

Ironically, the ship was delayed from departing not by this process, but some sort of system test that required additional time, so our schedule 4:00 PM departure occurred at 6:30 PM.

Tomorrow we will dock in Maputo, Mozambique.