Zululand Zig Zag : Travel to South Africa 2010 Accommodation

Maputo and is one of the last authentic African wilderness areas. Game viewing, bird watching, scuba diving, snorkeling, lake canoeing, fishing and cultural excursions are available. It has been inhabited since the 1650's by a mixture of Thonga, Swazi, and Zulu people, the tranquil plains of Maputaland.

Maputuland Horse Safaris and bushcamp

Horse safari rides will take you on adventures unreachable by vehicle.  8 Day and 3 Day trail rides are available, and venture from camp to camp and provide a breath-taking discovery of nature along the way.  Day outrides or also on offer.  Exciting adventures and activities in alternate rididng, could include, swimming with dolphins, snorkeling, scuba diving and canoeing.  Trail riding can be customized but needs to be booked well in advance.

A portrait of Maputuland by Roger de la Harpe

As you wind your way through the Ubombo Mountains on the Lower Mkuzi road that leads to the hamlet of Mbazwana in the heart of Maputaland, consider a little snippet of information. Consider, as you pass the private game reserves, the cattle, and the small rural stores called “tuck shops” and head down onto the coastal plain that the sea washed up onto these mountains many years ago. Consider as you drive along what would have been the seabed what it was like then. And what animals hunted and what people walked along these shores?

This is Maputaland in KwaZulu-Natal. A region loosely described as the area between St Lucia Estuary in the South, and the Mozambique Border in the north (an arbitrary border it must be said, made by some colonial bureaucrat all those years ago). The Indian ocean forms the boundary in the East and the Ubombo and Lebombo mountains in the West, although at a push it could include places like the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park to the west of these mountains. It’s a land of sunburnt beaches, steaming swamps and languid estuaries. It is a land where zebra, wildebeest and Nguni cattle graze their days away, shaded by stralitzias, huge wild figs and umdoni trees. It’s a land whose shores are washed by warm seas in which coral reefs abound. It’s a land where Zulu women still make their amacansi or sleeping mats on traditional looms and where the men tap the sap from lala palms to produce the sometimes very potent “lala wine”. It’s arguably the most “African” region of all of South Africa and sadly, to their detriment, often ignored by local and foreign tourists alike.

In the south is Africa’s largest estuarine system - Lake St Lucia. This great mass of water, sometimes warm and inviting and at other times moody and irritable, is home to about 700 hippo and 1 000 crocodiles and, when the conditions are right, as many as 60 000 flamingos move in and augment the already startling number of pelicans, egrets, herons, geese and other water birds. And on the shore surrounding the lake large numbers of reedbuck, buffalo, zebra and the occasional black rhino entertain the landlubbers. The cliffs along the western shoreline are rich in marine fossils indicating a similarly rich and diverse past. Wonderful beasts like ammonites, belemnites and pectin clams also lived here and the large fossilised sharks’ teeth, up to 16cm long, make one feel that this region was probably not a surfer’s paradise. Certain areas of the lake have been opened up for recreation and aside from the guided boat and launch tours fishing is a popular pastime. At certain times of the year good catches of grunter and salmon attract droves of fishermen.

To the east of course is the Indian Ocean. The warm Mozambique waters moving down the coast begin to cool and mix with the turbid water flowing from rivers like the Umfolozi and Tugela bringing an end to the coral reefs that get smothered by the silt. But in the north where the water is warmer and clearer coral reefs abound. Sodwana Bay and, up near the Mozambique border, Kosi Bay are very popular destinations for scuba divers and snorkelers. The reefs are covered with vibrantly coloured coral and seaweed and in amongst all this, small fish, with the dress sense of the Spice Girls, dart about. For those that do not take readily to the water, once a year in the summer, two very interesting sea creatures come to the land. Female leatherback and loggerhead turtles return to the same beaches, where they themselves hatched all those years ago, to lay their eggs and in so doing provide one of the most moving wildlife experiences available.

Kosi Bay, in spite of its name is not a bay but an estuary like St Lucia. The 18-km system comprises of 3 lakes, Makhawulani (the closest one to the mouth), Mpungwini and Nhlange, which are situated just behind the coastal dunes and interconnected by narrow channels. Unlike St Lucia the water flow is towards the north rather than the south. Once again the place is alive with crocs, hippo and birds and it’s in Makhawulani that the local Tonga people have built palisade fish traps, the ownership of which is passed down from generation to generation. These environmentally friendly traps (they allow the smaller fish through) have provided food for these people for centuries and when viewed from above make extraordinary patterns in this shallow lake. At low tide the fishermen wade into these traps and spear the fish with long thin spears.

The road west from Kosi Bay takes us through some very typically African scenery. Small villages come and go, small homesteads abound and everywhere cattle, goats and fowls play chicken (excuse me!) with the busses and taxis. School children stream along the sides of the road in the early morning and afternoon on their way to and from school. The road takes us past Tembe Elephant Park and eventually to Ndumu Game Reserve, tucked up against the Lebombo Mountains in the west and Mozambique in the North. For the twitchers – this is it! Pinkthroated twinspots, pel’s fishing owls, greencapped eremomelas, brownheaded parrots and 412 other species have been recorded in this 10 000 hectare reserve making it one of the premier birding destinations in the country. Keeping the avians company are bushbuck, suni, black and white rhino, nyala and many other animals. One of life’s great pleasures must surely be watching the sun sink into the fever trees surrounding Inyamithi or Banzi pan as flocks of birds return to roost.

Down to the south is Ndumu’s “sister” reserve Mkuzi which is very much closer to the N2 highway and for bird lovers it’s just about as good – 413 species as opposed to 416. There are large expanses of open savannah where umbrella thorn and scented thorn trees intermingle with the wildebeest, zebra and leopard. Along the waterways fever trees take over and in the southeastern corner of the park near Nsumu pan a short self-guided trail has been set amongst the huge sycamore figs. In the evenings especially, Nsumu pan is a delight as thousands of water birds return from the day’s foraging while the hippo grunt away like old men at the club. The cry of the occasional African fish eagle against the chorus of frogs and crickets completes the aural imagery of an ancient Africa and, if one has the presence of mind to bring along sundowners, an ice cold G & T from the coolbox is a very pleasant reminder of the present.

Mkuzi also has what is arguably some of the best game viewing facilities available. Situated at strategic spots in the park are game viewing hides built alongside water holes to which water is pumped during the dry winter months. As a result, from a very civilised 9 or 10 in the morning till late in the afternoon a continuous stream of animals moves past the hides. Impala, nyala, bush pig, warthog, zebra and wildebeest are just a few of the species likely to quench their thirst during the day. White rhino too are often seen and may spend most of the day relaxing in the mud and water while terrapins pluck ticks and other parasites from their tough, wrinkled skins.

Along the southern border of Mkuzi Game Reserve is the Lower Mkuzi Road where we began our journey. On the other side of this road is Phinda Resource Reserve, part of the Conservation Corporation Africa group. With its super luxury lodges and personal attention it offers the visitor the big 5 sightings, helicopter trips to the beach, launch tours down fever tree lined rivers and swamps and gourmet food in bushveld settings.

While strictly speaking not in Maputaland, but close enough to warrant a visit is the great Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park. A few kilometres to the west of Hluhluwe village is one of the two oldest protected areas in Africa, having along with St Lucia, just celebrated its centenary. This must be one of the most beautiful parks with, in the north, its deep valleys and ravines, flowing rivers and forest covered hills, the cape chestnuts glowing pink in the early summer. The terrain flattens and becomes more open as one moves to the south and west through the Corridor to Umfolozi and the chestnuts give way to boerboons and wild pears. Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park is very definitely rhino country (this is where operation rhino was centred in the 1960s) and there can be no better place to see these magnificent beasts than here. For its size, it is hardly vast at about 96 500 hectares, it has a huge diversity of plants – 1 250 different species have been recorded here – and as a result is able to support a similar diversity of animals.

Although there are no campsites available there is a range of hutted accommodation from the fairly basic Masinda camp in Umfolozi to Hluhluwe’s beautiful Hilltop camp with its restaurant, bar and swimming pool. Also available are bush lodges, guided walks and wilderness trails and night and day game drives.

Each day spent in this land that was once sea is a journey of discovery. The people, the animals and the plants all have facets to them that are not immediately apparent. The seemingly innocuous lily covered pans, which are so plentiful in this area, may appear to be inviting on a steaming summer’s day, but pause to consider what lies beneath that smooth, unruffled surface. Some fish? Perhaps a frog or two? What about a leach? What about the largest crocodile that you have ever seen? Spend some time here getting to know the place. There may very well be a few surprises in store for you if you take the trouble to search beneath the surface.

Source: Text and photographs by Roger de la Harpe from Africa Imagery



Maputaland-Pondoland bushland and thickets

(The following information has been sourced from Wikipedia)


The Maputaland-Pondoland bushland and thickets is a montane shrubland ecoregion of South Africa. The ecoregion occupies the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains, covering an area of 19,500 square
kilometers (7,500 square miles) in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. It is bounded on the east by the KwaZulu-Cape coastal forest mosaic, which lies in the humid coastal strip along the Indian Ocean; to the west it is bounded by the higher-elevation Drakensberg montane grasslands, woodland and forest. To the south, it transtions to the drier Albany thickets, which are characterized by more succulent and spiny plants.


Image by Steffen Beyer / Source: World Wild

The ecoregion has a dry subtropical climate. Rainfall varies from 800 mm to 450 mm per year, with approximately three-quarters of the rain falling in the warm summer months between October and March. Frosts are rare because of the moderating influence of the Indian Ocean. The typical vegetation is sclerophyll evergreen shrubs, which form dense, closed canopy thickets up to six meters in height. The ecoregion, which is in a transition between moist and dry, montane and lowland, and temperate and tropical, has a rich diversity of species, although with few endemics. The ecoregion is home to a variety of animal species, including endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum).


Maputaland coastal forest mosaic

The Maputaland coastal forest mosaic is a subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of South Africa. It covers an area of 30,200 square kilometres (11,700 square miles) in southern Mozambique, Swaziland, and the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. Mozambique's capital Maputo lies within the ecoregion.

The Maputaland coastal forest mosaic occupies the humid coastal strip along the Indian Ocean. It is part of a strip of moist coastal forests that extend along Africa's Indian Ocean coast from southern Somalia to South Africa. The northern limit of the ecoregion is north of the mouth of the Limpopo River, near Xai-Xai in Mozambique, where the forests transition to the Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic. The southern limit is near Cape St. Lucia in KwaZulu-Natal, where the Maputaland forests transition to the Kwazulu-Cape coastal forest mosaic.


The ecoregion has a seasonally moist, tropical to subtropical climate. Rainfall ranges from 1000 mm per year near the coast to less than 600 mm per year inland. Most of the rain falls in the summer months. Rainfall diminishes away from the coast, and the coastal forest mosaic yields to drier tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands.

The ecoregion comprises a mosaic of different plant communities, including forest, savanna, woodland, palm veld, grassland, and wetland habitats. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 14% of the ecoregion is protected in reserves. Protected areas in the ecoregion include Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park (3,280 km²) in KwaZulu-Natal, and Maputo Game Reserve (900 km²) in Mozambique.

source: Wikipedia

Ndumu Game Reserve and Tembe Elephant Park are home to the last truly wild elephants of Southern Africa. Drive through the sand forest into the coastal savannah with its lake systems Kosi and Sibiya, the largest freshwater lake in the Southern Africa. View the traditional fish kraals and watch endangered leatherback and loggerhead turtles lay their eggs in the coastal dunes at certain times of the year.

Tembe Elephant Park

The Ivory route is but one of the game drives offered at the Park, it takes you on the route where elephants once moved seasonally between Mozambique and Maputaland, but were brutally poached for their ivory tusks.  A sum of 180 of these magnificant elephants still roam here to tell the tale, some bearing the war scars of their history.  Other drives reveal an abundance of game and birdlife, and ofcause the renowed Big Five.

FOR TOURS AND ACCOMMODATION IN MAPUTALAND CALL 035- 772 4555
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