BEACH EDUCATION
These unspoilt beaches offer an unforgettable marine education experience. A visit to the St Lucia region offers a varied and exciting range of habitats to study. Rocky shores, swamp forests, grasslands, mangrove swamps and many other ecosystems are easily accessible. Some ideas for themes include: Food chains and energy flow, the water cycle, nutrient cycles, adaptations of plants and animals to the environment, adaptations to changing water levels, the role of water in organisms, man's relationship with the environment, culture and the environment, the importance of wetlands and how various ecosystems differ.

Places to visit include:
The Crocodile centre:
Students will find displays, dioramas, crocodiles and aquaria that help to explain the various habitats and the natural history of the region.
The Game park:
There are several walks through the park. One can visit the swamp forest, mangroves, vleis, pans, coastal forest and grasslands. Each habitat has its characteristic animal and plant representatives. Students can expect to see impala, waterbuck, wildebeest, zebra, reedbuck and duiker on their walks. Hippos are almost always seen in the the estuary and sometimes in the pans.
The Gwalagwala walk:
This is a 1.5 km walk through the coastal forest which offers excellent opportunities for studying forest inter-relationships. Adjacent to the forest is a mangrove community, so a comparison of the two habitats can be done. The rotting vegetation and fungi in the forest make an ideal study site for nutrient cycles.
The St Lucia Estuary:
Mangroves, hippos, birds and other estuarine components are well represented here and may be studied from either the banks or the boat. The Santa Lucia goes out about 8kms up the estuary and takes about 2 hours. Eighty people can be taken at a time. At the mouth there is a broadwalk that takes you across the shark basin and is excellent for studying tidal fluctuations in mangroves. The estuary is also an excellent place to look at man's relationship with the environment.
The Beach walk:
From Iphiva camp there is a walk that takes you down to the beach. It is about 1 km long and can be used to study dune forests and plant succession as it goes from mature forest, through dune scrub and ends on the beach.
Mission Rocks:
This is an excellent spot for rocky shore studies. Students experience the extreme physical conditions of the rocky shore and see how the various plants and animals have adapted. Animals and plants to see include sponges, sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, worms, snails, crabs, sea urchins, marine algae and fish.
Cape Vidal:
The marine reserve offers several unique educational opportunities such as snorkelling and dune field studies. Observing marine life is a great experience where one enters another world inhabited by creatures often very different to those we are familiar with on land. Other interesting natural features are the massive dune fields and the high forested dunes. These are good for studying dune formation and pioneer plants. Rocky and sandy shore studies can also be done here successfully. Apart from the marine reserve there are some interesting activities that can be done on land. An 8km trail goes through the dune forest and down to Lake Bhangazi. Birds, trees, spiders and forest ecology can be observed here. The coastal Lake Bangazi is different and exciting to visit but be careful of the crocodiles and hippos. The Education centre: St Lucia Estuary Consists of two dormitories, each sleeping a maximum of 28 children / students, each with a cubicle for two teachers. There is also a separate house that accommodates 2, which may be used by teachers or bus drivers. Each dorm has an internal toilet for night use, while a nearby ablution block provides toilets and hot and cold showers. The kitchen is supplied with cooking facilities, large cooking pots, some utensils. a deep freeze, a fridge, tables and benches.

Reference material:
These experiences are supported by various books and field guides which include:
The Living Shores of Southern Africa - Branch, G & M
The Ecology of Maputoland - Bruton M et al
The Mangroves of Southern Africa - Berjak P et al
Two Oceans - Branch G.M.
and the popular Hands-On guides:
Hands-on The East Coast Sandy Shore
Hands-on The East Coast Rocky Shores
Hands-on East Coast Estuaries and Mangroves
Hands-on East Coast Dune Plants
Hands-on The East Coast Reefs

The hands-on guides are available from:
Share-Net
P O Box 394
Howick
3290
South Africa
Tel (033) 3303931
The material in the hands-on guides is copyright free subject to certain conditions.