St Lucia

St Lucia is the gateway town to iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 that stretches 332,000 hectares along the northeastern KwaZulu-Natal coast. The town sits where the St Lucia Estuary meets the Indian Ocean, at the southern end of Lake St Lucia, an 80km-long lake that forms the largest estuarine system in Africa. Portuguese explorer Manuel Peresterello named the bay Santa Lucia on 13 December 1575, the feast day of Saint Lucy. The British proclaimed it a township in 1822, and the game reserve was established in 1895, making it one of South Africa's oldest protected areas.

What makes St Lucia different from any other small beach town is that the wildlife is unavoidable. About 700 hippos live in the estuary and are routinely seen on the main street at night, grazing on the verges between the restaurants and guesthouses. Crocodiles are in the water. Out at sea, whale sharks arrive seasonally and humpback whales pass during their annual migration. The birdlife is extraordinary: flamingos on the lake, fish eagles from every tree, and over 500 recorded species across the park.

The town itself is compact and entirely oriented around ecotourism. Guided boat trips on the estuary, snorkelling tours with whale sharks, beach drives on the Eastern Shores, horse riding, and 4x4 trails into the dunes are all available from town. The main street has the basics: restaurants, dive shops, supermarkets, a petrol station. Cape Vidal, accessible via the Eastern Shores route, is about 30km north and offers snorkelling and beach camping inside the reserve.

iSimangaliso is genuinely one of the great wilderness areas on earth. St Lucia is the most accessible entry point, and the town works because it doesn't try to compete with what surrounds it.