Shoreline Vessels

 Shoreline Boat Safaris

 

Shoreline, is a custom-built vessel, especially in offering you a shallower draft for the estuary experience. This enables us to get up close to the hippos and crocodiles giving you the opportunity to take photographs and videos up close.

Our qualified Skippers and Game Rangers will give you interesting information and facts about the various wildlife and ecosystem.

The vessel has been specifically designed in offering you 300 degrees of visibility, each seat is forward facing ensuring that you never lose sight of anything.

Each vessel has a carrying capacity of 15 clients and therefore much more personal and interactive compared to the larger vessels.

Animal Species that one may come across

The GOLIATH HERON-Being the largest of the heron family stands approximately 1.4 m high. It has a wingspan of approximately two meters.  These enormous wings often drag along the water when the bird takes off for flight and it is a very solitary bird. Furthermore, it can eat fish up to approximately 2 Kg.

The PIED KINGFISHER- Hovering above the water and suddenly diving down into the water to grab a tasty meal.

The AFRICAN FISH EAGLE - The females have a large beak, long white chest, and deep cry whereas the males have a small beak, small white chest, and higher pitched cry.  When mating they sometimes fly high in the sky, linking talons together, come tumbling down together looking as if they will crash into the earth, parting just before impact copulation taking place in the air for about 10 to 15 seconds.

You may also find the GIANT KINGFISHER, MALACITE KINGFISHER, MANGROVE KINGFISHER, and the WOODLAND KINGFISHER within the St Lucia Estuary area. There are numerous other species of birds that may be found in the estuary.

THE NILE CROCODILE

They have been around for about 180 million years, and it is said to have survived the dinosaur extinction. Males can reach 5.5 meters and females 3.9 meters in length.  These animals are masters at conserving energy and can stay submerged for up two hours at a time slowing their heartbeat to four beats per minute.

A crocodile gets forty-five sets of sixty-six teeth each in its lifetime which adds up to approximately three thousand teeth in a lifetime.  It will then drag its prey into deeper water,
spinning around.  At the same time, it tears chunks of meat off its prey.  The crocodile's jaw does not allow lateral movement thus it can only eat chucks of meat.

 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

The Hippo kills more people than any other animal in Africa,  applying six tonnes of pressure per 2cm. The males can reach over one and a half tonnes and the females one tonne. They can stay underwater for up to six minutes. Hippos can reach speeds of up to approximately eighteen kilometers per hour in water and approximately forty-four kilometers per hour on land. A large hippo can eat up to thirty-five kilograms of grass per night, excreting it back into the estuary system.