A different day beckoned; we had a later start of 0900am as we had opted to do a bike tour which would give us a very different perspective of the coastal area, the dunes and the first part of the park ( i.e. before a second cattle grid which leads to the main park and the home of the buffalo and rhino where biking would be foolhardy!)
During the first part of the cycle we cycled along paths and boardwalks along the edge of the lake and beach. We unexpectedly saw the hippos and crocodiles together with a goliath heron, stilts, and avocets feeding on the edges of shallow lagoons. We went past lovely beach areas, all with Zulu names except for 'main beach'. The latter had several sellers of local crafts and possible requirements for a day on the beach putting out their wears as we went up onto the beach for a look and a drink of cool guava juice.As we wended our way back towards to the park we had to shift our gears to 1or 2 on our mountain bikes, this enabled us to cycle effectively on the sandy narrow paths - we had never done that before - it was good fun and we learnt a new skill! As we got to the park road we could see zebras and warthogs so we parked the bikes and walked for a while - it was really peaceful and the animals were seemingly unperturbed by our presence. After 10 minutes or so we got back on our bikes and pedalled back to Hornbill House - we had a short last stop at the crocodile centre to drink the last of the, still cold, guava juice.
We were back at 1100am so were able to have a nice relax until our next and final trip which was a boat trip leaving at 1500 hours. We walked into into town to get some lunch and importantly buy a much needed pair of gloves to replace my lost one from last night - indeed I bought the shops last pair!
The boat trip gave us our final perspective on the Isimangaliso ecosystem - we didn't get to the vast expanse of the lake but we motored for several kilometres slowly up a broad channel which goes from the beach end towards the big expanse of lake. Not surprisingly we saw crocodiles and hippos in the water but unusually we found one whole pod of hippos out of the water standing, lying, resting their heads on each other and generally chilling - it was coolish and they no doubt felt safe as they were surrounded by reeds and mangroves. It made for some different photos was a pleasant change from the half a head or nostrils shots I usually get. One hippo had a really young baby - see today's photo who was cute to watch. Apparently the females know if they are going to have a male or female calf - if its male they move away from the pod because to have it within the pod would be too dangerous as the dominant male would kill it - they then slowly introduce it to the pos as it becomes less vulnerable.
We also had good views of fish eagle, white fronted cormorants, pied kingfishers and the great kingfisher( Africa's largest). To round the trip off we watched the sun go down while drinking mugs of hot chocolate and eating rusks ( hard biscuits made for dunking).
Conclusion:
Isimangaliso is a superb location with an unexpected diversity of wildlife; its the only place in the world where you can see the worlds largest marine and land animals almost side by side - i.e. whales,elephants and rhino. Next time it would be good to visit the Western shores and see if we could find the elephants. Added to the bird and animal spectacle the people are very friendly and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming.