Saint Lucia Activities | South Africa

GASTRONOMIE

SAINT LUCIA

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WEBSITE : stluciasouthafrica.com

The small town of St. Lucia is located in the heart of Zululand. On the southern edge of Isimangaliso Wetland Park, and one hour from Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park, St. Lucia is the perfect base to explore the area. The verdant and peaceful town is known for its stunning views of Lake Saint Lucia, a home for hundreds of hippos, crocodile, birds and fish. The small town is really touristic, the main street is packed with accomodations, restaurants and many tourist agencies.

WILDLIFE WATCHING

It is common is St. Lucia to cross the path of a hippo, and even, if you are very very lucky, to see a leopard lost in the street at night. The day before our arrival, two leopards were fighting in the main street of St. Lucia. We weren't lucky enough to witness a such unbelievable scene, neither to see a hippo in the middle of the town, but we understood that this phenomenas are quite normal for the inhabitants of St. Lucia. It is not advisable to walk in secluded areas at night as hippo are often sighted and can be extremely dangerous. The only animal walking in the city you can not miss is the cute velvel monkey. There are hundreds of them around the town, especially at the end of the afternoon. If you feel like doing a safari, nothing more easy, the dozens of tourist agencies of St. Lucia offers many tours, such as Night Drive Safaris, Bush & Beach Safaris, Hippo & Croc Boat Cruises, Whale Watching or Turle Tour.

HIKING

We counted 5 short trails around the town of St. Lucia (easily accessible by foot from the town):

Ihlati trail : 40 min, traverses the dune forest to the coast and back
Iphiva trail : 60 min, circular, walk through the grasland and the edge of the dune forest
Iphotwe trail : 50 min, circular, walk through the grassland and the swamps
Imvubu trail : 75 min, traverses grassland, swamp forest and marsh and back
Igwalagwala trail : 30 min, circular, walk through the forest along the estuary

WATERSPORT

The many tourist agency on Mckenzie Street offer different types of sport activities. Located between the Indian Ocean and the Lake Saint Lucia, most of the activities are watersport, like kayaking, snorkelling or fishing. We really wanted to experience kayaking between the hippos and the crocodiles, but the activity was not available during our visit in St. Lucia because of construction works in the city.

CULTURE

If you are interested about the Zulu Culture, Saint Lucia offer some cultural tours to overview the current Zulu life. You can visit the Khula Village (15 minutes from St. Lucia), and get an idea of the Zulu culture by visiting schools and churches and by witnessing a Zulu traditionnal dance. Moreover, you can also visit the Zulu village of Shakaland, famous for being the location of the movie Shaka Zulu. We didn't feel like visiting any of these villages because it sounded like a "tourist trap" to us. By listening tourists that actually been there, we understood most of the visit is staged like a play. We already had this feeling when we saw a bench of zulu dancers dancing in front of all the restaurants of Mckenzie Street.