St Lucia …
by The Naked Barista… May/June 2015 Alexia Perfume
While we were working in Richardsbay, we went on a Sunday excursion with the bike to St Lucia.
On the way there we saw a turnoff with a sign ‘Cheese Farm & Lodge’ amongst the vast expansion of trees. This is a lovely cheese farm with fully licensed restaurant and children will have a very good time too with a petting zoo and even milking the goats. They offer an introduction to cheese making and tasting and if you fancy being there so much that you cannot leave, well that’s okay as they have self-catering accommodation…
…but on we biked until…
Nestled between the Indian Ocean and the St Lucia Estuary are the entrance to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. It is the only private village that is surrounded by a Natural World Heritage Site.
History would have it first named in 1554 by the survivors of the Portuguese ship Saint Benedict. They named it ‘Rio de Areias de Auro’ which means ‘River of the sands of gold’. Back then the Tugela River Mouth was known as St Lucia. Then in 1575, the Tugela River was renamed Tugela and St Lucia received its current name.
The town’s vibe, is of ease and provides the visitor a feeling of flexibility, comfort and freedom. It has two well stocked supermarkets, a dozen restaurants and coffee shops, several fishing tackle shops, and many tour ticket booking offices. There is also a popular fruit and craft market.
Accommodation facilities abound as this town can get very busy with tourists. This mostly benefits the iSamangaliso Wetland Park as qualified tour operators operate under their concession umbrella so that they receive a large portion of any trip booked. This money is used for the education of the local community as well as the upkeep of the Park.
Tourist Attractions are plentiful and include boat-based whale watching, hippo/croc boat cruises, day and night drive safaris, bird watching, walking trails, Zulu cultural tours, midnight turtle tours in season (1 November – end February), kayaking, horse riding and deep-sea game fishing…definitely enough to do…
We were only there for the afternoon and went for lunch at the boat club.
Divine timing as we were superblessed to see Hippos popping up out of the water.

Hippo’s in the water, but not so clear on photo…sorry…
Superblessed with this short visit…
Gratitude!