2006-02-16
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作者：长音
祖鲁王国 --圣鲁西亚
• Zululand (1) -- St. Lucia
Lying within a unique world heritage site that contains 5 ecosystems and situated on the estuary of the St. Lucia Lake, St. Lucia is a veritable relaxing heaven as everything here relates to beach, fishing, boat hire, snorkeling and beach. Plus, very important, a lot of sunscreen.
April 4
We are welcomed by a bright blue sky first morning in St. Lucia. All troubles of 250km drive yesterday in the rain and losing our way in darkness seem have been chased away by the fabulous sunshine. We have a great mood for a morning walk! Our guide William who works in our hostel the BiB’s International Backpackers takes us to the Great St. Lucia Wetland Park. We are so happy that they can arrange such morning walk for free everyday. William has been enjoying doing the walk for 3 years and every morning is a new start of the day and a new experience for him! This morning compensates us for Kruger’s eventless bush walk and overwhelmingly satisfies our wild heart. We see blocks of zebras, blue wildebeests from closer distance, but small ones like grasshopper, dung beetle and thousand-foot scorpions as well, let alone we almost run into a hippo who almost bites our heads off! That happens when we approach the St. Lucia Lake where according to William, is inhabited by many hungry crocodiles and hippos that warrant extra care and very fast swimming . One path to the lake is too muddy then we chance to another off-the-beaten track. As we walk across bunches of reeds and bushes, a kind of loud busy noise comes behind a tree, it sounds like a pig running messy around. William signals us to gather close to the bush and not to make any sound, sweats coming down from his face. The sound gradually fades away and the “pig” seems have run away. Everyone looks a bit nervous because it is no pig but HIPPO, one of the most dangerous animals in the world. Earlier in Kruger we learnt that if you stand in the path between a hippo and the lake, you are in great danger, because hippo is very afraid and defensive, when he is afraid, he defends himself by biting. Not long ago happened in St. Lucia Lake that a crocodile tried to pray a baby hippo and he ends in being bitten into three pieces by the mother hippo. Later during that night’s jeep safari, we even discover those deadly animals eating in grass and they are horribly huge.
Lucky we! It was not a baby hippo nearby, otherwise his mother would have certainly attack and bite us 100% dead or half-dead, and maybe… maybe … maybe now I would had to use my fake hand or foot to write this story since they are bitten off by an African hippo…
We go swimming in the Indian Ocean the rest of the day. The warm current of the Ocean is so nice and warm, helping to recover from the hippo shock.
April 5
Today we will do some snorkeling in the Cape Vital, where is a great place for such aqua sport. With the snorkel glass and feet paddles, we cannot wait jumping into the sea. What a splendid water world! The rich diversity of fishes and reef island next to the beach present a colorful aquarium in front of our eyes. We are so delighted at this amazing aquarium like two kids, and we even swim together with all fishes. They are just next to us! I cannot help stretching my arm and try to embrace them, but they always manage to escape. I keep on chasing and grabbing them, since they seem so close, but they turns out to be only visible but unreachable. When a series of big wave comes, I am inevitably being rolled over and pushed far away, then I have to swim back and dive again under the water to search for them. But they, free as fish, are more relaxed and elegant swimmers. Time flies when you have fun, the whole day have almost passed. The sunscreen we applied on before has been washed away and we get badly burnt due to long-time being exposed. The African sun is much stronger than that in Europe and we have no experience for its generosity. With joys in heart and burning at back, two red lobsters leave the beach. On the way back, we see three black rhinos. They are lazy around in a muddy pool, not as impressive as we expected. The evening is not pleasant at all. I feel sick and vomit out everything I ate. Lying with back down in bed is a problem, we have to sleep with face down and apply a sort of freezing fluid to heal our body. The burning heat and freezing coldness torture me by turns, making me sweating and shivering and restless. Is it a feeling in a hell? Am I going to die?
April 6
A miracle! I seem to have survived and we move on. Long time driving under the sun is not as nice as lying on the Indian Ocean beach, but at this moment it is a better option for our backs. We pass by the third largest city Durban, town of Pietermaritzburg, and etc., but no time to stop by. Around lunchtime, we arrive at a small town Howick, known for the Howick waterfall. We walk down the muddy mountain path and get a very close look at the waterfall. Howick is more widely known because it is the place that Nelson Mandela was arrested in August 1962 and from then on his lengthy incarceration began. We visit the memorial that marks the actual spot on his arrest.
待续
