Although St. Lucia Village has relatively few residents, a paltry 650 odd residents, for its size it is certainly not a sleepy hollow. Day and night, it is abuzz with environmental activities. Described as an outdoors activities village in a place of wonder. At 5:00am tours depart for various parts of iSimangaliso and other smaller Parks an hour away. In the evening night tours take place and some of these only return to St. Lucia in the wee hours of the morning. So, if you plan to do everything in a few days, expect to get very little sleep.
Even the animals “work” day and night shifts. Others are crepuscular. But there is one mighty beast of the night, that gets everyone talking. A monster and blubbery one at that. Stalking our parks in the dark of the night, like giant grass vacuum cleaners. A total of 130kgs of grass are vacuumed into their massive bodies. Silently slipping between trees, grassy parks and the traffic to get to their urban salad bowls. You see their silhouettes in the faint streetlamp light. Back and forth guzzling down grass.
In the morning wide eyed guests regale of their uncertain encounters with these midnight monsters, some quite uncertain of their encounter and willing to believe it was the previous nights vodka that was responsible for their sightings Certainly, the hippos living in the estuary surrounding St. Lucia Village have a soft spot for our hamlet. Sneaking in at night to nibble the verdant greens and shuffling off into the lake in the early hours of the morning before the first vehicles depart for not too distant game reserves or early morning fishing. So this quiet hamlet never really sleeps, certain residents are up all night while others are diurnal.
Africa is alive 24/7.
Tourism Tails 