Episode 11: Bevan and I had never visited Ndumo Game Reserve before. I think this has a lot to do with its location on the South Africa-Mozambique border; if we were that far north in KwaZulu-Natal, it would be because we were en route to Mozambique’s beaches. Given our personal bias to the sea, I can’t say that Ndumo will replace Mozambique as our destination the next time we head north. Our experience there though has made a very strong case for adding a few extra days of leave and visiting both!
Ndumo Game Reserve is managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. The northern boundary of this game reserve is the Usuthu River, and its opposite bank is Mozambique. Under normal rainfall conditions this is a large river with a wide sandy bed. Like many other areas of the province though, the current drought conditions meant that this river was almost dry. It didn’t stop us from enjoying the view over the river from the vantage point of the Red Cliffs picnic site. From the edge of these red-coloured cliffs we could see a large herd of giraffe browsing along the river’s edge, were startled by a large leguaan (water monitor) making its slithery escape through the bush near our feet, and watched a Gymnogene (African harrier hawk) skirt the trees along the river bank and settle in the thorny canopy just down the way from us.
Our four day stay absolutely flew by but I have a sneaking suspicion that we will be back to Ndumo! From here we are on to another one of KZN’s inland reserves - Ithala Game Reserve near Louwsburg. This is another new stop for both Bevan and I and we are looking forward to exploring more of our incredible province.
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