December 2023 update by Frankie2Socks

Greetings aga

in from Frankie2Socks

It is late December 2023 and there weather, here in St.ucia KZN South Africa, is not playing fair, it is overcaste and threatening to rain, with a very strange wind that is blowing this way and that, then not blowing at all for awhile ,  not a nice pleasant wind at all. 

Last time I  Was at the beach before give bells this morning as usual, and just in time to catch the sunrise, but I did need to wait for the sun to peep through between some clouds, but that was   two days back.

When I last did the mouth walk thing, I walked all the way to the northern edge of the then along the growing point that wants to close the estuary by getting married to the western bank of the St. Lucia / Umfolozi River estuaries,     where the Umfolozi River estuary meets the sea going flow from the other four rivers that flow into the St. Lucia estuary systems.

Very strange things happen here, and these days sea sand is going into the upper edges of Lake St. Lucia's ocean connection. There are  four rivers here

1) Mzenene

2) Nyalazi

3) Mkuze

4) Hluhluwe

And they are all very tiny when compared to the Mighty Umfolozi River... The Mighty Umfolozi River is a very important part of the Zulu culture and mythologies. 

#Mapelane or as loosely translated into English Journeys end or the establishment that accepts your presence at the final destinations of your travels.

Come visit 

visit St. Lucia in North East KZN South Africa

Come visit St. Lucia and discover the many Jews and great tourism attractions in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Phone Petrus Viviers or the office staff at #4u2Stay on 0813427371

The 4u2stay team will help your holiday to find you. Tell them what you want to do when visiting St. Lucia. If you are not sure, just ask and the team will jump into a room and prepare an itinery for you. We understand that you have a budget, and want to do as many things S is possible in the short time that you are on leave or on holiday. If you have your own transport and want to do the #SelfDrive thing, that is fine by us, and we will find you the cheapest routes and self drive tracks within the nearby game reserves and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in North East Zululand, South Africa.

If you wanna go deal sea fishing you can book yourself and pay in advance here  these guys are one of the busier fishing charters in St. Lucia. While you are Staying in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and surrounding areas think about booking your holiday accomodations with the 4u2Stay team by phoning 0813427371 if out side South Africa change the front zero for +27 meaning you will the dial + (plus)  two Seven eight one three four two Seven three seven one or +27813427371  

December is here and now the fun starts

Greetings again from Frankie2Socks

It is Wednesday 29 November 2023 and the mouth to both the St. Lucia estuary and the Umfolozi River estuary, which were closed to the Indian Ocean due to a marine incident, when a ship called Jolly Rubino ran,  aground in 2002, just South of Mapelane, but about 1 kilometer North of the Cape St. Lucia light house, are currently still open to the sea. Let me say that again, "The mouths of the Umfolozi River and the lake St. Lucia estuary basin are both currently(November 2023) open to the ocean" 

So what does this mean ? 

Strange but very thought provoking question here. What are the ecological and environmental issues at stake due to the open / closed nature of the St Lucia estuary and the Umfolozi River? 

This is a rather large and open topic, and I will only cover a very few of the issues here. I have a FB page at facebook.com/4u2fish which expands and discussed some of these issues. One must remember that there is a rather large economic interest in the functioning of the lake, as in the past the local folks at Kuka village, Monzi, Mtubatuba, Nkunduse, Nyalzi and close by areas all had access to fishing rights and we're able to trade in fish, prawns, crabs and other marine delicasies.

These were all St threat due to the rather serious and nasty consiquenes of the chemicals on board the Jolly Rubino.  Firunately the South African Government took this threat if pollution seriously, and these were salvaged with great difficulty and theoss of life as well as one helicopter.

At that point in time when the Jolly Rubino sank in 2002, the mouths to both the Umfolozi estuary and the St. Lucia estuary were busy closing naturally due to an ongoing and persistent long term drought. This natural action of mouth clouse of estuaries is not properly understood, and very often abused and used for personal,  financial or party political gain. This politicization of these natural and environmental issues is nasty and very economically damaging to the St. Lucia region and surrounding areas of Umkhanyakude District municipality. 

The natural resources harvested (fish, prawns, crabs and other tasty treats) and sold by the locals forms a very big portion of the local economy of the Mtubatuba municipality, and St. Lucia tourism industry also contributes to this as well as the local forestery industry and commercial sectors. 

These natural resources have vanished from our estuaries due to the very bad and rather nasty past management strategies by the IWPA. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are the government appointed management team of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site. 

The IWPA is mandated to hold public participation process meetings for their ESTUARY MANAGEMENT PLANS  in a few different zones. The ICMA or Integrated Coastal Management Act dictates many different issues relating to estuaries and estuary management.

St. Lucia Estuary in North East KZN South Africa is an interesting destination.

 St. Lucia KZN South Africa is an interesting place with lots to do and plenty to see.  Check out these options 

The early morning beach walks that I take with Petrus Viviers and his dog , a bitch called Parrdette  always surprises me with Beautiful sunrises and strange stuff washed up during the night. 

The blue cheeked bee eaters are getting ready to leave for warmer areas, and the yellow billed kites have already left for the winter. 

The St. Lucia estuary mouth area is a rather hot birding spot and the African Skimmers  seem to have left ..  a few weeks back we also had a crab plover,...

During recent weeks there has also been a #PalmNutVulture hanging around that has zupprised a few folks with rather pleasant poses on the northern bank of the open mouth. 

At spring tide low water there are also many gulls, turns and plovers on the Southern banks of the estuary with Mapelane in the back ground. 

 Fanas tours  which runs the Fannas boat offering special boat trips to view bippos crocks and birding  offers interesting options to enjoy the wild life along the St. Lucia estuary banks 

 

Come visit and book your yours here   

Also look at these options 

   

Fanas early morning birding trip #12March2023

Greetings to all who read here.

Earlier today, Sunday 12 March 2023 I was fortunate enough to experience a truly awesome boat trip on the St Lucia estuary with friends and visitors to the area.

 The captain of the boat, Shaun, who is a long time friend of mine acted as the your guide on this truly awesome birding excursion.

We departed from #SunSetJety St six bells sharp, and traveled South to the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth, then further South past Mapelane, along the Umzunduze river which is a tributary of the Umfilozi river. 

The Reeds along the river which are an ecological problem had a supprizing number of birds, and we all took many pics. Some more than others. I am not really a super keen birder, so I spent most of the time chatting to the other folks on board FANAS as we slowly powered along the estuary, past the mouth area, up steam leaving Mapelane Sand dune far behind us.

Mapelane is a rather talk vegitayed sand dune which is a local historical land mark that gets its name from Zulu History. Loosely translated from Zulu to English Mapelane means "Journeys end" or the end destination of a travel quest.

Mapelane is also marketed as the second tallest vegitated sand dune in Africa. 

My Friend Petrus Viviers did a live YouTube  video of this very beautiful and informative birding excursion. 

We saw many different birds including the #AfricanSkimmers and giant heron . Really awesome trip thanx to  trip. https://www.facebook.com/FannasHippoCrocTours/

Strangler fig walk about in St. Lucia KZN

 The Strangler Fig walk about is a short walking tour about   2 hours, and is a guided tour show casing a few Strangler Fig trees in the small village of St. Lucia Estuary within the isimangaliso wetland Park World heritage Site.

Strangler fig trees are parasitic trees that grow on the outside of other trees, wrapping them selves around the host, and quite often killing the host tree a decade or so after germinating at some strange spot on the host, where the seed was contained in bird shit. 

During this short walk you will see strangler fig trees at various stages of growth. You will see some young stranglers, some not so young strangler fig tree, and dome rather old  trees with one fella that has killed his host and taken control of the ground where he is growing.

 Today this is eye candy for the visitors to BARRACA RESTAURANT 

We will start at BARRACA then walk along McKenzie street towards Shop right.  Across the road from shopright is a nice example of a medium age  strangler fig tree, and we will see others who are younger before reaching Shop Right.

From Shopright we will walk through the park towards the St. Lucia police station. On The Way We Will pass a very strange example of a long standing rather old strangler fig tree that has not been successful at killing it's host. 

The tour will end at the St. Lucia public library across the road from the St. Lucia Police Station.  Then we will walk back to Barraca restaurant where we started the walk about.

Phone Frankie2Socks on 0630702571

Phone/whats app Siya on 063 523 3522 

Mail stranglerFig@info4u.co.za 

 

water lilly tours

 The 4u2fish campaign needs some funds.  this tourism package to take pics of water lilies opening in the morning is going to be our initial entrance into the tourism market. 

water lilies close up real tight and are insect proof at night, coz there are nasty insects that eat the heart of these delicious flowers at night. here in the iSimangaliso wetland park these flowers are not really on the menu. they have also not rally been on the menu here in Umkhanyakude like they were in the western and western cape those years back. you can still find recipes for WATER BLOM BREDDIE 

The water liliies of north east KZN and the iSimangaliso wetland Park  are actually rather large, and this page will soon be updated to contain more info as the tour guide offering these   tours speaks with us and fills us in on the deeper setails.

we hope to have these early morning photo opportunity tours up and fully functioning as income streams for the rural folks of the Kula village and Dukuduku areas. for more info seend an email to waterlilies@info4u.co.za  

these are gonna be very interesting photo opportunity tours, where spiderwebs and dewdrops in the early morning sunshine will add to the supprise photo opportunities that come along with sunrise every morning..

wanna know more about these photo opportunities ? send an email to our team 4u2fish@@info4u.co.za and we will hep ypu find the right tour guide to introduce you to the many sunrise photo opportunities here within the iSimangaliso wetland park in North East KZN South Africa.

besides water lilies, there are many other wildflowers that offer great photo opportunities. If you wanna come into the bushes and wildlands to get pics of any wildflowers, let us know by email to flowers@info4u.co.za and we will see what can be arranged for you to get really great wildflowers in front of your camera so you can get real nice pics that make other folks jealous. 

early morning (Sunrise) tours are always interesting, and this is the time that nature wakes up and shows of its true glory.. once the sun gets a little higher in the sky, it gets warm and uncomfortable here in Zululand. it is the same with your trips into the game parks to see wild life. you see a very different set of life experiences in the sunrise times, that are simply not believable, unless you have experienced them yurself.  sunris on the ebach is also a great experience. contact us at  morningtours@info4u.co.za and we will see what you would like to experience and we will see what we can do to make it happen.

Spiderwebs in the morning sun offer stunning pics that will make your trips really memorable.  the opening of water lilies will also add tou your life experiences and give you something to chat about for a week or three, then again once every so often when you want to brag about your photo skills or tings that you have personally experienced.

thanx for reading here.. enjoy take care and remember to live life to its fullest, just because you can.. Go experience life... 

#Frankie2Socks