Today we spend the day exploring the village market and the wild beaches of Cape Vidal.
Enjoy game viewing in Cape Vidal Game Reserve where you can hope to see rhino, waterbuck, kudu, zebra, reedbuck, porcupine and many other smaller animals. We also visit a crocodile sanctuary, which has a small museum about the Isimangaliso Wetlands.
We then continue to one of the wild beaches, where you should see thousands of ghost crabs scurrying around for food. With over a hundred miles of pristine coastline and the tallest forested dunes in Africa, these titanium-rich beaches are an important breeding ground for giant loggerhead and leatherback turtles, who nest and lay their eggs under cover of darkness from November to January, with the hatchlings emerging and running the gauntlet of ghost crabs from February to March.
Pods of dolphins are often seen in these waters and from June to November, you may be fortunate enough to see humpback whales, who migrate from Antarctica to mate and calve in these warm waters.
Birdlife too is prolific with habitats ranging from grassland to swamp, sand and coastal lowland forest. There are also a variety of aquatic habitats including rivers, marshes, lagoons, estuaries and the beach. Here you can hope to see Great white pelicans, Marabou storks, Yellow-billed storks, African spoonbills and African fish eagles, whose calls can be heard along the shoreline. Sometimes after a storm, seabirds such as the Yellow-nosed albatross, Giant petrel, Tropicbird, Frigatebird, Sooty tern and Noddy tern are blown closer to shore, allowing for some wonderful close-up sightings.
Note: It is not safe to swim at Cape Vidal, as there may be crocodiles and sharks in the water. There are also strong rip tides.