Greater St Lucia Wetland Park

This World Heritage Site the brochure on the region claims it houses five separate ecosystems, although then rather unhelpfully claims it takes days to understand how they interact, without actually outlining what they are. There are obviously wetlands and sand dunes, and between St Lucia and Sodwana we went through savannah grassland and wooded areas (in addition to the fields of sugarcane rippling in the breeze and pineapple plantations). On the coastline is a marine sanctuary where Turtles breed and coral reefs in the north offer superior diving.

St Lucia itself is a tourist resort village offering overpriced souveniers and guided walks and tours. We stayed at the pretty Sugarloaf site at the mouth of the estuary. Hippos were lazily lounging in the water and as the sun lowered in the sky Nile crocodile lumbered from where they were basking on a sandspit into the water to float downcurrent innocently pretending to be logs. As we were setting up camp Duncan told me to turn around. Some 30 odd small grey striped mammals with long tails and legs too long ferrets to be were swarming across the ground like a plague of rats. They were storming from one rubbish bin to the next foraging for scraps. We later identified them as mongoose (I love the Collins Fieldguide to African Wildlife). Later that night we saw a pair of bushbabies, one in pursuit of the other, bounding across the grass, mewling like infants.

As we arrived to camp Vervet monkeys were ransacking the campsite next door, going through the rubbish bins and jumping on their tents. Duncan left the drivers door open for a minute while he preparing the tent and moments later a monkey had jumped into the drivers seat and made off with a half eaten bag of crisps secured with a rubber band, which took him half an hour to figure out how to open. In the morning I felt under seige as I prepared breakfast - mongoose were swarming everywhere and I was irrationally afraid ofthem deciding to run under the Land Rover through the camp where I was standing. I was also surrounded by monkeys watching my every move for an opportunity to swipe some food. Fortunately they both headed off as the day wore on and the heat increased.