St. Lucia Day 1

Last weekend (13th) we went on our end of the year retreat to St. Lucia!!  We had a great time and we were able to reflect and talk about important things that we have experienced and learned throughout the year.  I'm going to break this trip up into multiple posts, we did and saw so many things!  If you were wondering what the name of all of the birds are that I posted pictures of on Facebook, you will be able to find them here!

The first day we went on the estuary on a boat like this one!  So this particular estuary is the biggest in SA.

The first thing we saw were some crocodiles!

The estuary used to be dredged to keep it cleared, but thankfully they no longer do that.   This is where they used to store the machines and take them in and out of the water.

So from the distance it looked like there were some odd rocks in the water..

But when we got close we could see that they were hippos!  During the day the hippos stay in the water to keep cool since they cannot sweat.  But at night they come out and graze.  When the sun started to set, we would have to be careful in town because the hippos would be out and about.  They are very dangerous animals since they have extreme tempers and are very territorial.   They actually kill more people than any other animals in SA.

Even though the estuary is connected to the ocean and is affected by the tide, it was still very low.  Our tour guide told us that the top of the bank used to be the water level.  No significant rainfall for 18 months =(

Juvenile Giant Kingfisher

Some water buffalo.  The estuary has game parks on both sides of it.

This is a Goliath heron!  We weren't able to see it for long because a Fish Eagle came about, so the heron took shelter in the trees.

The Goliath heron from a bit further away.

On our way back I was able to get a picture of the Fish Eagle that scared away the Goliath Heron earlier on the boat ride.

Woolly-Necked Storks.  This one is sunning itself to dry its wings!

Mangroves.  These trees are pretty amazing. They are normally on the water but the water level is low.  Anyhow, because the water has a lot of salt in it, these trees actually sacrifice a branch to store the salt in.  So all of them have 1 dead branch.

Great White Egret 

Some baby hippos sunning themselves.  The pink on the hippos is actually a secretion from their skin to protect them from the sun.  They have sun protection, but they can't cool themselves without going into the water.

You see the hippos in various levels of water, it just depends on how hot they are feeling.

White breasted Cormorant 

This Pied Kingfisher caught lunch!! We actually got to watched it catch the little fish =D

This is what the estuary looked like without all of the zoom.

The teeth of this crocodile look so scary!! I had to add the picture.

Looks like one hippo stepped on the toes of the other!! After the ride on the estuary we took a walk on the board walk and saw more hippos!
The next post will be the from the last 2 days of our retreat in St. Lucia.  So much wild life!