It bounced right back up after the collision and ran off into the darkness. The park is roughly 160 miles from Durban, making it one of the closest pristine beach and game areas for urban vacationers. I have focused on three very different socioeconomic communities, which are adjacent to one another, yet they share very different realities regarding this Park. One community is the town of St. Lucia, which is populated by White South Africans who run tourist related businesses, and the other two are Zulu communities about three miles away, with obviously significantly lower levels of income generation, employment and education. St. Lucia relies heavily upon both South African fisherman and ecotourists visiting the park.
Fishing is seasonal, nicely complementing the growing tourist trade.
However, as the fishery continues to decline, St. Lucians increasingly rely on tourism for revenue. They run guesthouses, fishing and snorkeling excursions, game drives, restaurants, shops and other services. Their community has paved roads, gas stations, banks and all the other amenities associated with a small resort. The irony of Whites now battling to protect the remaining wetlands is not lost on Black residents, whose way of life on the margins of the park is coming under increasing scrutiny and control. The two Black communities' relationship with the park is based on subsistence agriculture and the hope for jobs.