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Visitors to Kosi Bay Nature Reserve can take guided walks to various places, such as Lake Amanzimnyama, while guided walks to the fishing kraals start from the community campsite at the entrance gate to Kosi Mouth. The rock pools near Kosi Mouth offer superb snorkelling opportunities, and boat angling on the lakes (Amanzimnyama excluded) is another popular pastime. Campsites and three fully furnished thatched lodges are available on the shores of Lake Nhlange. LAKE SIBAYACovering up to 77 km2, Sibaya is the largest freshwater lake in South Africa and an important wetland for waterbirds, attracting up to 20 000 waterfowl at times. Among the nearly 300 bird species recorded to date are yellowspotted nicator, brown robin, Woodward’s batis, pinkthroated longclaw, gorgeous bush shrike, purplebanded sunbird and African spoonbill. The lake is home to hippo, crocodile and a variety of fish. But because of low nutrient levels the fish are small in size and angling is not a major attraction.
Sibaya is, however, situated conveniently close to Nine Mile Beach, a popular coastal angling spot. Among the smaller mammals to be seen in the coastal dune forest are red and common duiker, samango and vervet monkeys, thicktailed bushbaby, red squirrel and bushpig, while reedbuck favour the open grassland areas. Visitors can explore the surroundings of Baya Camp, a rustic bush camp on the lake’s southern shores, by following a 3,4-km trail, or book a boat trip on the lake. Accommodation is also available in the upmarket Sibaya Lake Lodge. MKUZI GAME RESERVECovering some36 000 ha of bushveld, Mkuzi Game Reserve forms part of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, to which it is linked by the Mkuzi Swamps. The reserve offers visitors a superb game-viewing experience, with black and white rhino, leopard, hippo, giraffe, nyala, impala, blue wildebeest and Burchell’s zebra among the species to be seen.
There are several hides overlooking water holes and Nsumo Pan and a 41-km self-drive interpretive trail. There are guided birding and game-viewing walks, as well as night drives. Not to be missed is a guided walk along the Mkuze River, with its enormous sycamore fig trees, or the Fig Forest Walk, a 3-km self-guided route through a magnificent forest of sycamore fig and fever trees. Also worth visiting is the Kwajobe cultural village, with several beehive homesteads, reconstructed in the area where the Kwajobe people lived until they were resettled outside the reserve in 1947. Various accommodation options are available to visitors. |
