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I took the Bazil Bus at 8am from Durban, arriving in St Lucia at around noon. There was just me and one other person on the bus, and she was a South African heading back home from her mums to Swaziland - it's really bizarre, the hostels in Umkomaas and Durban were deserted, the one in the Drakensberg was only full because lots of South African's were there for a weekend break (thankfully!!) - there don't seem to be any other backpackers on this route!!
As much as I like my own company (?!?)......and as much as it's doing my liver the world of good ( I haven't had any mad apples since Coffee Bay) it'd be nice to have some fun people to hang out with!!

Anyway, listen to me - whinge whinge whinge!! It's actually really, really nice to be away from the Durban area - I've been for a walk around the town, lots of people said hello to me, noone mentioned crime and there are no bars on the hostel windows - hoorah!! One of the best things about travelling is the feeling of freedom, but for a while there around Durban I wasn't feeling particularly free!!


I think this hostel in St Lucia might have some potential - there don't seem to be too many people around right now but the guys who organise the tours seem like they could be quite fun - we're going for a walk to the wetlands with a few drinks (yep, looks like I might fall off the wagon tonight) to watch the sunset at 5pm.......I'm just killing time now catching up on emails and blog stuff.

Thursday 1st: OK, so there are a few more people here than the last few hostels I've been at, but there's still not really much happening. The sunset walk ended up being the guide, a Dutch fella, me....and a bottle of cider!!
Before dinner a group of zulu singers entertained us for a while - they were dressed like the black and white minstrels but without the make-up and they were pretty good.
They offer a free dinner on a Wednesday evening of Potjiekos, which is a traditional meat and veg stew cooked in a 3 legged iron pot, with pap. There were lots of people around for that, but then most of them disappeared and I ended up chatting to a group of Dutch people for most of the evening which was cool, but they left this morning.
This town is a great place for wildlife - at around 10pm a group of hippos came into town and were grazing in the grassy bit opposite the hostel which is apparently a common occurance. They were enormous!!! Also, the hostel is just alive with the sound of frogs - I've heard loud frogs before, but these are sooo loud, they drown out the sound of the music in the bar!! They are tiny too - but when they croak, their throats puff up bigger than their bodies. 



I'm in a dorm, but it only has two beds...and last night the girl in the other bed was a strange Aussi girl with a weird psycho look about her - she reminded me a bit of the crazy woman in the film Misery!!! She brought the hostel dog to bed with her and then she interrogated me about everywhere I've been and made strange hmm'ing noises as I told her stuff. Then she noticed my psoriasis - she's never seen psoriasis before but then said that she was going to 'allow her mind to investigate it' and see if she can offer me some help....then a few minutes later she said 'I can see that it has something to do with the grey brain matter at the back of your head - I can see a grey filmy liquid'. What a FREAK!!! I think she actually thought she had some amazing healing powers or something.....maybe she was a witch??!? Thankfully she left this morning, otherwise I'd have had to ask to switch rooms!!

So, there are around 20 activities available to book from this hostel - whale watching, cultural village tours, rastafarian tours, game drives etc etc. So, I thought there would be plenty to keep me busy for a few days.....so I tried to book up to do a few of them.....but not a single one was available due to lack of people!! How duff is that?!
I've booked up to do my advanced PADI diving course in Sodwana Bay from Monday so I'm here til then and struggling to find stuff to do!! The weather has turned rubbish - it's cloudy and overcast with the odd shower (blimey I sound like a weathergirl!! ha ha).

I did find something to do today though - every morning the guys from the hostel go for a 2 hour game walk as we're so close to the nature reserve here. It was really good - we walked along by the estuary and saw hippos, white rhinos, buffalo, impala, waterbucks and a few other antelope types, a grass snake and a huge grass-hopper/cricket type thing.

 


So, that kept me busy until 10ish and I've spent most of the rest of the day on the internet uploading photos, I went out for a nice lunch, and I booked myself in for a massage for Saturday - funnily enough, the massage people are fully booked until Saturday.....that seems to be the most popular activity here at the mo!!

Friday 2nd: I woke up to the sound of rain.....really heavy rain!! ...and it rained pretty much all day!! I thought it had stopped for a while so I walked into town, but no, it absolutely poured down when I was walking back so I got drenched!!
I spent the afternoon on the internet finishing off uploading photos, had dinner and chatted to the guys in the bar for a bit - quite a dull day really!!

Saturday 3rd: I went for a massage and reflexology today....and it was great!!
Then I went for lunch and for a wander around the shops before heading to the Monkey bar next door to the hostel for their tequilla promotion. The guys from my hostel were supposed to be there but they weren't there when I arrived so I ended up chatting to some local Africaans. I spent the rest of the evening with them which was a good laugh. There were a couple of live bands too which were really good. Later on the dancing commenced - the Africaans were doing a kind of salsa ballroom type dance to the 'disco' music which was a bit odd, but strangely it worked!! I got dragged onto the dancefloor a few times, but I really am rubbish at dancing so the guys were just laughing at me!!

Sunday 4th: I spent a lot of the day in bed recovering from too many tequillas last night!! I went for a walk down by the estuary to see if I could spot any crocs, but I didn't see any.
Not much else happening today!! I got a new room-mate - she seems nice!! Watched a movie and chatted to some people at the bar. That's about it!!

Monday 5th: Leaving St Lucia for Sodwana Bay for some scuba - hoorah!