ndumo game reserve sycamore trees

Ndumo Game Reserve

Ndumo Game Reserve is a small, green dot on the map between the uSuthu and Pongola rivers that is home to some incredible surprises. At only 10,117 ha, the Ndumo Game Reserve is one of the smallest of the game reserves in KwaZulu-Natal, and South Africa. However, this is by no means an indication of…

kosi bay lake in the evening

Kosi Bay Slackpacking Trail

Kosi Bay and the Elephant Coast are among the most unique and beautiful jewels in KwaZulu-Natal’s illustrious quiver of natural attractions. One of the best ways to experience this area (as with so many areas in KwaZulu-Natal) is on foot, which is why we’re about to recommend that you do everything you can to get…

Snorkeling the Kosi Mouth Aquarium

Snorkel Aquarium Reef at Kosi Bay

Aquarium Reef at Kosi Bay is one of the most unique and exhilarating places to explore KwaZulu-Natal’s underwater world. A wide variety of marine life, tucked into a small corner of the beautiful Kosi Lakes system, is an obvious attraction. We’ve spent many hours drifting up and down this aquatic centerpiece during our Ultimate South African…

Mzinyathi falls

Mzinyathi Falls

The Mzinyathi Falls is an attraction that not too many people know about, yet it’s a very short distance out of Durban, making it another reason why we love this subtropical beach city! There is so much to do in and around the greater eThekwini area if you make the effort, and plenty of incredible…

isandlwana in the rain
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The Battlefields: Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift

No other place seems to have played as pivotal a role in the history of South Africa as that of KwaZulu-Natal. Specifically, the battlefields region around Dundee. All three powers of the early South Africa met here – the Boer and Zulu in the 1830s, British and Zulu during the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, and…

Ithala Game Reserve
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Ithala Game Reserve: The valley of a thousand mountains

Ithala Game Reserve totally blew us away! Ithala Game Reserve just outside Louwsburg in northern KwaZulu-Natal is a relatively new reserve. Established in 1973, the land previously had a number of uses including gold mining. Evidence of varied and poor land use management is visible in some areas of the park in the form of…

Bevan at Lala Nek
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Sun, snorkeling and sand roads in northern KwaZulu-Natal

Bevan and I have just been fortunate enough to have spent some time in the Coastal Forest section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. This area of the park includes the stretch of northern KwaZulu-Natal coastline between Sodwana Bay and Kosi Bay near the Mozambique border. This is a remote section of coastline, accessible for the most part…

Sunset at Sodwana Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal
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Bush Walks, 1,000 Year Old Trees and the Best Sunsets Ever in iSimangaliso

Hi everyone. We left things off last time inside the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Game Reserve. Since then, we’ve headed back into the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and had a week characterised by extreme weather that changed just about every plan we had. Somehow though, things have a way of working themselves out. We were sad to leave the Hluhluwe/iMfolozi Game…

Hiking in the Entumeni Nature Reserve

3 of our favourite forests in southern Zululand

Barely two hours’ drive north of Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal province lies Zululand and a veritable Eden of pristine forest habitats. Despite the development that has taken place locally, these forest patches have remained largely untouched and are home to some special bird, mammal and reptile species that attract international visitors from far afield. Here’s…

Mission Rocks
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Sad Goodbyes to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Welcome to our second update from the St Lucia section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Expectations exceeded If someone had asked us before we started the trip how long we thought we’d spend in this area, we would have said three days, possibly four to be generous? We were sure that that would have been…

Trail running group
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Trail Running Pilot with KZN Trail Running in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

We’re writing from St Lucia again, but this time we have something a little bit different to report back on: Trail Running The iSimangaliso and KZN Trail Running Pilot Event We were recently invited to take part in a pilot trail running event in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, hosted by iSimangaliso and KZN Trail Running. The purpose of…

Lake St Lucia estuary
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Exploring St Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Today we’re writing from the Cape Vidal section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park iSimangaliso is a park that needs no introduction. It was proclaimed as South Africa’s very first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It was awarded this status for its unique ecosystems, its biodiversity and sheer beauty. This is…

Exploring the mangrove forest on the banks of the Umlalazi River
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Exploring the forests of southern Zululand and Mtunzini

Hi everyone and welcome to stop number 2 on the Ultimate South African Road Trip: This week we’re visiting Mtunzini. Mtunzini and the Umlalazi Nature Reserve Mtunzini is a small coastal village about 130 km north of Durban. I’ve lived in Durban my whole life and this is the first time I’ve ever been to Mtunzi….

Shayamanzi-on-the-Jozini-Dam

Tiger Fishing on Jozini Dam with Shayamanzi

Welcome to the beautiful Jozini Dam on the northern border of Kwazulu-Natal. (Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for our latest travel videos!) The Shayamanzi on Jozini Dam We’ve just spent the last 2 nights on the Shayamanzi II which is a live-aboard house boat that operates on the Jozini Dam. The good people from Shayamanzi contacted me…