uMkhuze Game Reserve
Expert Reviews (7)
South Africa Parks
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.
Feathers and Fever Trees
Although it was recently incorporated as the 40 000 hectare uMkhuze Section of the iSimangaliso Wetland World Heritage Site, uMkhuze is one of Africa's oldest game reserves. With Sand Forest giving way to gently undulating grasslands, peppered with flat-top acacias and fever tree-choked drainage lines, the park is well-known amongst ornithologists for its varied habitat and rich birdlife. Twitchers tend to concentrate their energies on Nsumo Pan and the neighbouring fig tree forests, while wildlife enthusiasts focus their energies on Kumasinga Hide: the most productive of Mkuze's four recently refurbished game-viewing hides. Despite ongoing problems with poaching, Mkuze still boasts excellent densities of most antelope species. The reserve is also home to rhino, leopard, cheetah and wild dog and a programme to reintroduce lions has just been approved, so it won't be too long before the final member of the Big 5 makes a welcome reappearance in Mkuze Game Reserve.
Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
3 people found this review helpful.
A well-located reserve and home to a good cross-section of KwaZulu Natal’s game species
uMkhuze features the usual acacia savannah, but as it lies just to the northwest of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, it also features tropical swamps and well-watered riverine forest. The roads were easy to navigate, but some passed through areas of thick bush, which were not ideal for game viewing. The grasslands, however, were more open, where we found giraffe, wildebeest, kudu and nyala, and at the airstrip we were lucky to see cheetah (they love the flatness of airstrips). Although I did see rhino, they aren’t as prolific as in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi. At the pans, we were able to get out of the car and walk down to some hides to watch the many aquatic birds. Mkuze’s appeal is its location; easily accessed off the N2 highway and not far from the coast, offering a good combination of safari options with the other Maputaland reserves.
Kim is a travel writer who authored and updated over 15 guidebooks, including Lonely Planet's South Africa and Bradt's Tanzania guides.
4 people found this review helpful.
Mellow uMkhuze
If you’re into birding then you’ll love uMkhuze Game Reserve – it's home to some 400-odd different species which have flourished in the park’s swamps and woodlands. For bigger mammal lovers like myself, the park has all of the Big Five, as well as nyala, wildebeest, warthog, impala, kudu and other smaller antelope. The park also offers rare sightings of hyena – heard but sadly not seen in my experience. Birders should make sure they take a stroll through the Fig Forest which provides numerous bird and monkey sightings, while the three hides offer excellent viewing of the larger mammals. At Nsumo Pan Hide I easily spied hippo and crocodiles and at Kumahloha hide I was amazed by the constant parade of wildlife coming down to the pan including rhino, giraffe, kudu, wildebeest, zebra and baboons.