Greater St Lucia (South Africa)

The Greater Santa Lucia national park stretches out on every side of the small, touristy village of Santa Lucia, where all the hotels, restaurants and local businesses are based. I loved going to the False Bay beach – but be careful, as the currents there make swimming dangerous.

This region, with its swamps, is remarkably different from the others, its scenery quite a change from the neighbouring Kwazulu Natal, and very pretty. If you're planning to take a trip into the inland region around the lakes of the national park, you'll need a 4x4.

I absolutely loved the boat trip I took downriver to see colonies of hippopotami and crocodiles. There is an impressive amount of them. By day, they sleep in the water, and you can see very little of them – but at night, the hippos come to browse the grass on the riverbanks, and so long as you have a torch with you, you can watch them!

They may appear friendly, but keep your distance: they are the number one cause of accidental deaths in the country after car accidents. When they charge, they charge to kill, they run fast and they won't let go of you.