The St Lucia Wetland Park must be the only place on the globe where the world's oldest land mammal (the rhinoceros) and the world's biggest terrestrial mammal (the elephant) share an eco-system with the world's oldest fish (the coelacanth) and the world's biggest marine mammal (the whale).

Former President Nelson Mandela

10 August 2001

In December 1999 the existing St Lucia game reserve with 35 000 ha lake as well as the adjacent coastal areas was declared a world heritage site, recognising this magnificent conservation area's global importance.

The park stretches for more than 220 km from the Mozambique border to St Lucia and incorporates:

• False Bay Park
• St Lucia game and Marine reserves
• Cape Vidal
• Mission Rocks
• St Lucia estuary
• Bhangazi lake
• Charter's Creek
• Fani's Island
• Sodwana Bay
• Lake Sibaya
• Mkhuze game reserve

• 2 Hour Boat cruise on lake
• Full day tour: safari, cruise & snorkel
• Snake & Crocodile Park
• Quad bike trails
• Hiking trails
• Canoeing
• Craft markets

This incredible area is a perfect destination for all ages and offers something interesting for everyone.

The site encompasses five major ecological zones:

• Marine ecosystem sea, coral reefs, fish, whales and dolphins.
• Eastern shores ecosystem sandy beaches flanked by some of the highest vegetated sand dunes in the world, grassy plains and a variety of wetlands.
• Lake St Lucia - Africa's largest natural estuary, populated by hippopotamus, crocodiles and water birds.
• Mkuze swamps a reed and papyrus wetland.
• Western shores - dry savannah and thornveld with rich deposits of fossils.

Situated only 5 minutes drive from the lodge is False Bay Park, part of the St Lucia Wetland Park. This park has a beautiful lake, with lovely picnic spots.
Guests can reserve a picnic basket from the lodge and enjoy lunch next to the lake with spectacular views of Hell's Gate peninsula.

Giant trees such as the Strangler Fig and the Lebombo Wattle provide the perfect scenery for hiking. You will find fossils, pectin clams and fossilised worms when exploring the park or visiting the display room, since this rare sub tropical forest grows on ancient coastline.

This 4000 ha game reserve was proclaimed in 1944 to conserve its diversity of plant life and tremendous variety of insects and birds.

A favourite excursion among locals is to spend a day at Cape Vidal. Only a limited number of vehicles are allowed per day at this unspoilt beach with its tidal pool.

Cape Vidal beach is renowned for its sport fishing and is another excellent snorkelling spot.

Guided wilderness trails include visits to Bat Caves, lake Bhangazi, Mount Tabor and exploring the rock pools at Mission Rocks during low tide.

St Lucia World Heritage Site and the coastal area in particular are recognised as a globally important Bird Area (IBA) and a Ramsar site. Flocks of flamingo's and pelican make homes on the islands in the lake when the plankton levels are high. Two species of flamingo are found here.

The Lesser Flamingo feeds by filtering microscopic algae and diatoms food from the surface, whereas the Greater Flamingo submerges their entire head in the water and feed on larger crustaceans, molluscs and dipteral larvae.

To understand the dynamics of the area's bio-diversity one should consider the evolution of the area. A long time ago the area was submerged beneath the sea and waves washed against the rocks of the Lebombo mountains (which have fossilised coral reefs on the slopes to prove it).

Geological shifts caused the sea to retreat, and this exposed a vast terrace - about 200km wide. Wind action piled the sand high along the new shore in a series of dunes, while the formerly fast-flowing rivers meandered across the huge flood plain. When they finally met the coastal dunes, these rivers damned up into a system of shallow lakes and pans forming the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park.

Lake St Lucia is the largest marine lake in Africa with a surface of 350 square kilometres and is connected by the sea in the south by 21km of winding channels. The average depth of the lake is about 1 metre.

Four major river systems feed the lake with fresh water while salt water is fed into the lake at St Lucia village; where the lake meets the sea some 70 kilometres from the northern extreme of the lake. This interesting interplay between salt and fresh water influence the saline levels in the lake. The salinity varies from zero in times of floods to three times that of the sea during droughts. The salinity varies also between the areas of the lake, from the saline mangrove swamps the less saline lake reeds.

The lake hosts the largest single population of Hippo (800) and provides an important nursery for marine species (like fish and prawns) that migrate from the sea to the lake to mature.

The lake is bound on its eastern shore by some of the world's largest vegetated sand dunes and the grasslands offers rich game viewing opportunities. The Conservation Park Authority has successfully introduced elephant and buffalo to the park, and as it currently stands the Park is only short of lion.