​Expert Reviews – Hluhluwe-iMfolozi GR

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Expert
Dale R Morris   –  
South Africa ZA
Visited: Winter

Dale is a multi-award-winning writer and photographer with more than 500 published magazine articles featured in magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa, and CNN Travel.

1 person found this review helpful.

An Oasis for Rhinos
Overall rating
4/5

If it were not for the combined parks of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi in South Africa’s KZN province, it’s probably fair to say that we might not have rhinos in the wild today – at least not in southern Africa.

During the 1980s, when illegal rhino hunting was at crisis levels, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi’s anti-poaching staff were instrumental in protecting a very healthy breeding population of these much-beleaguered beasts.

Over the decades, hundreds of black and white rhinos have been shipped out to repopulate the continent and to keep the species from falling into extinction.

There are numerous camps (both basic and quite luxurious) from which to conduct self-drive safaris into these reserves, and whenever I go, I always come away with sightings of the Big Five. The chances of spotting rhinos are high, and I have often seen ‘herds’ of these formidable creatures as they roam across the park’s grassy hillsides like fleets of organic tanks.

Visitors should also keep their eyes peeled for African wild dogs, leopards, honey badgers, and aardvarks.

For those who prefer to explore on foot, the reserves offer a plethora of guided big game walks, ranging from a single afternoon to a multi-day wilderness experience where you will sleep under the stars without a tent, surrounded by elephants, lions, and, of course, rhinos.

Expert
Ariadne van Zandbergen   –  
South Africa ZA
Visited: Multiple times

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

2 people found this review helpful.

Africa’s Rhino Sanctuary
Overall rating
4/5

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is the oldest wildlife reserve in South Africa. Having lived in the province myself, there is a special place in my heart for the cluster of ‘Zululand Reserves’ of which Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is the center point. The reserve, with its rolling hills and lush vegetation, is particularly scenic. It’s also one of the best places in Africa to see white rhinos. In fact, the reserve was one of the last rhino strongholds when this animal became near to extinction in the 1950s. Without a doubt, it’s as a result of the conservation efforts here (Operation Rhino) that we still share this planet with these phenomenal, prehistoric-looking beasts. This is not a reserve to quickly tick off animals, but I’ve seen all of the Big Five here. Predators are a little bit harder to find because of the thick vegetation, but numbers are healthy. Aside from the cats, wild dogs can also be seen. The real beauty of the park is the graceful Nyala antelope. Although it occurs in small numbers in other parts of Southern Africa, it is a Zululand special. It always amazes me how this bulky antelope carrying big horns can disappear in no time into apparently impenetrable thick bush.

Expert
Stephen Cunliffe   –  
South Africa ZA
Visited: Multiple times

Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.

2 people found this review helpful.

Rendezvous with Rhinos
Overall rating
4/5

This is the only major park in Kwazulu-Natal to contain all of the Big Five and it’s fitting that Africa’s oldest proclaimed park has endured as the stronghold of the continent’s beleaguered rhinos. The park’s terrain varies from open savanna grasslands to hilly woodlands and mountainous forest. This diverse range of habitats is the reason why both black (browser) and white (grazer) rhinos thrive here. Although the park is home to a wide variety of animals, including all the cats, for me it is the rhinos that steal the show. Despite a recent surge in poaching, this place still crawls with more rhinos than you can shake a stick at. Whenever I visit, I enjoy spending hours – whether in the vehicle or on a guided bush walk – tagging along with a crash of docile white rhinos as they mow their way through the rich grasslands. The lush green vegetation exudes an atmosphere of rejuvenation and abundance… and if the health of the rhinos is anything to go by, then it’s safe to assume that this park is really blossoming. So, come to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi to get your fill of rhinos and stand a good chance to see most of the Big Five in the process.

Expert
Kim Wildman   –  
Australia AU
Visited: Multiple times

Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.

3 people found this review helpful.

Rhino rapture
Overall rating
3/5

My first South African game park experience, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve holds a very special place in my heart. Each time I’m in KwaZulu Natal, no matter where I am going, I always make a special effort to add a couple of days here into my itinerary. Because of the reserve’s infrastructure and built-up nature, highlighted by a network of well-signed, easily navigated self-drive roads – not to mention its close proximity to Durban which makes it a popular weekend getaway with city slickers – it does come across a little more Disney-style safari park than nature at its rawest. Once you enter through the gates though, you’ll find the game viewing here is equivalent, at least in quality if not quantity, to Kruger. It’s comparatively smaller size also means you won’t struggle to find any animals. The drawback of course is that you’ll continually be retracing the same routes throughout your stay. On each visit I’ve easily spied elephants, rhinos (the park is renown as a refuge for the endangered white rhino), buffalo, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, antelope and baboons all at very close range. I’ve also had several sights of hyena. While I’m yet to see lions or leopards, there’s always next time.

Expert
Emma Gregg   –  
United Kingdom UK
Visited: October

Emma is an award-winning travel writer for Rough Guides, National Geographic Traveller, Travel Africa magazine and The Independent.

4 people found this review helpful.

South Africa’s top spot for rhino-watching
Overall rating
4/5

The tongue-twister of a name (shla-shloo-we oom-fer-lo-zi) is well worth mastering, because, despite its small size, this a good park for Big Five wildlife-watching, with the highest concentration of white rhinos anywhere, thanks for a conservation programme spanning decades. Of all the places I’ve visited in southern Africa, this is the place where I’ve had the best views of rhinos – closer, and for longer. You may also see wild dogs here.

It doesn’t cost much to stay in the park, particularly you’re travelling in a largeish group: the KwaZulu Natal wildlife authority runs a good number of staffed self-catering camps and a large lodge, Hilltop Camp, which was founded in the 1930s. The more comfortable private lodges outside the boundary are close enough to use as a base for daytrips.

Expert
Mike Unwin   –  
United Kingdom UK
Visited: Multiple times

Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.

4 people found this review helpful.

Rhino retreat
Overall rating
4/5

This beautiful park, Africa’s oldest proclaimed game reserve, became famous as the last stronghold of the white rhino when the species was hunted to near extinction at the turn of the 20th century. Today, sightings of these huge, tank-like animals are guaranteed, and I have also had frequent success searching for the more elusive black rhino. Elephant, lion and cheetah are among a number of species that have been reintroduced in order to restore the area’s original complement of large mammals, while nyala are conspicuous among the many antelope. As in much of Zululand, birding is excellent, with Narina trogon and African finfoot among my best sightings. The park’s habitats extend from the higher, moister grassland of the Hluhluwe section to the drier bushveld of Imfolozi, with the latter bisected by the meandering Black and White Umfolozi Rivers. Though one of KwaZulu-Natal’s largest parks, this joint reserve is small by African standards, and population pressures along its boundaries have made fencing inevitable. Nonetheless the habitat inside is pristine. To get the best of it, try one of the famous – and highly popular – wilderness trails: my five days of crossing rivers, camping out, tracking lions and dodging rhinos on the Primitive Trail ranked with the best bush adventures anywhere in Africa.

Expert
Paul Murray   –  
United Kingdom UK
Visited: Multiple times

Paul is a travel writer, author of the Bradt guidebook to Zimbabwe and is closely involved in promoting tourism to Zimbabwe.

4 people found this review helpful.

A Very Well Managed Park
Overall rating
4/5

This is a lovely, large, flagship reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal boasting the Big Five and much more. The speciality here is rhino, black and white, both in very large numbers. The rangers know their reserve and its animals intimately, which makes it a brilliant place to start off your game viewing and you should come away with a healthy ticked list of animals. There’s also a good range of accommodation options inside the park with some of the tamer species like warthog, impala and zebra grazing outside your door. I have marked the wilderness vibe only ‘2’ because it’s very organised and gets pretty busy during holidays and although you only see the fences at the entrance gate, for me it’s not really wild enough. All my South African friends love it though and you probably won’t find a better introduction to southern African game viewing and the Big Five.

Expert
Philip Briggs   –  
South Africa ZA
Visited: Multiple times

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

4 people found this review helpful.

Home of the Rhino
Overall rating
4/5

The first thing I associate with Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is rhinos. These twin reserves, now jointly administered and connected by a corridor reserve, have been instrumental in rhino conservation. Practically all the world’s remaining white rhinos are descended from a bottleneck population of around 30 conserved here in the early 20th century. Today, the park hosts the world’s densest rhino population. White rhino are particularly numerous. It is unusual to go on a game drive without encountering a few individuals. Hluhluwe-Imfolozi offers a better chance than most parks of seeing black rhino too. All the rest of the Big Five are present, along with cheetah and African wild dog. While elephant and buffalo are common, large carnivores are scarcer. Indeed, the only sightings I had over several visits were an early morning glimpse of a leopard crossing the road, and a wonderful look at a full-maned male lion alongside the Imfolozi River.

Other attractive features of this reserve are the scenery, dominated by rolling green hills and the forest-lined rivers for which it is named. Birdlife is excellent, too. There is no better place in South Africa to see the bizarre trumpeter hornbill, pretty eastern nicator and mop-topped crested guineafowl. The rest camps in both sectors of the reserve are good value for money. Several are unfenced, so quite a bit of wildlife passes through. On my most recent visit to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, it seemed to be busier, thanks to the fleet of open-sided 4x4s that bring in day trippers from Memorial Gate. Most of these stick to the immediate vicinity of that gate, however, so self-drivers seeking to avoid the crowds are advised to head deeper into the park.

Expert
Lizzie Williams   –  
South Africa ZA
Visited: Multiple times

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

7 people found this review helpful.

Characterised by its hills and offering easy game drives in pursuit of the Big Five
Overall rating
4/5

This is one of the few parks in KwaZulu Natal where you can see the Big Five, and I’ve had very rewarding game drives here. But it’s not typical terrain of rolling plains that most people expect, and ‘hilly’ and ‘woody’ are the best words to describe the landscape. Nevertheless the hills provide good vantage-points to look down on clearings in the bush, and from Hilltop (the main camp) the views stretch into neighbouring Swaziland. Game viewing is excellent from the Sontuli Loop, the corridor linking Imfolozi to Hluhluwe, where I’ve seen plenty of rhino (the reserve is famous for its breeding programmes) and the normally rare and beautifully marked nyala. At the Hluhluwe River I’ve often seen elephant and another rare specimen, the samango monkey. Predators are not often seen but cheetah, lion, leopard and wild dog are all present.

Average Expert Rating

  • 3.9/5
  • Wildlife
  • Scenery
  • Bush Vibe
  • Birding

Rating Breakdown

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  • 3 star 1
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  • 1 star 0
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