The beauty of Ongoye Forest is its combination of textures - the velvet-like grassy hills fringed by tall dense forest with great granite domes emerging at random along the ridges.
Ongoye Forest
Ongoye Forest
The Ongoye forest is also home to rare and endemic animals and birds such as the red squirrel, the Green Barbet, the Yellow-streaked Bulbul and the green butterfly.
It was also home to the magnificent giant Wood's cycad (Encephalartos woodii) which has been extinct in the wild since the early 1900's.
The many tree rarities include magnificent giant umzimbeets (Millettia sutherlandia), forest mangosteen (Garcinia gerrardii), forest waterberry (Syzygium gerrardii) and the Pondoland fig (Ficus bizane) amongst others.
There are no fewer than nine varieties of fig growing in the forest and this abundance of fruit could be the reason the Green Barbet can only be found in Ongoye Forest.
Good birding can be enjoyed by walking along the tracks through the reserve and there is usually a lot of activity in the first 2kms.
Guides can be booked through Zululand Birding Route: Tel: 076 080 0545
email: guides@zululandbirdingroute.co.za
The Rare Cycads
Cycads - Living Fossils
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These palm-like plants are ancient relics of a once widespread and dominant ancestry. Often referred to as 'living fossils', cycads were abundant in the Mesozoic era and reached their zenith in the Jurassic Period some 160 million years ago. Today only about 200 species exist and they are found mainly in Central America, South Africa and Australia.The genus Encephalartos occurs in southern Africa and some individual specimens may be more than 500 years old - the rootstock possibly much older. The demand for these plants as garden specimens has pushed them close to extinction in the wild and they are now specially protected. |
Their appeal is not only their rarity and ancient lineage but also their sculptural shapes, the symmetry of their foliage and the colourful fruiting cones on the male and female plants. The male cones bear masses of pollen, distributed by wind and insects to the opening female cone on a female cycad nearby. In 1895 the curator of the Durban Botanic Gardens, John Medley Wood, was on a collecting trip in Zululand and found a solitary clump of cycads in the vicinity of Ongoye Forest which turned out to be unique - it was later named Encephalartos woodii in his honour. Over the years the entire clump was removed from Ongoye and it is now considered extinct in the wild. The single specimen Wood identified was male and no female is known to exist. Suckers from the original cycad continue to provide new plants and the species is represented in many of the major botanical institutions of the world - including Kew Gardens in London where it is labelled as 'perhaps the rarest plant' in the Kew collection. Today the best place to see the Encephalartos woodii is at Durban Botanical Garden where the same specimen collected in Ongoye Forest over 100 years ago has doubled in size and continues to provide suckers which are part of botanical collections all over the world. It is now listed as extinct in wild. |
Ongoye Forest Map
Ongoye Forest Map
Access & Directions
Access & Directions to the Forest
Access
The forest has been greatly improved with concrete strips leading to the forest but sections of the road between the R102 and the forest are severely potholed and a robust vehicle is recommended. Pockets of the Reserve in the west can accessed on a good tar road from Obanjeni on the P240.
There are narrow tracks which lead from one side of the forest to the other but they can be obstructed by fallen trees. Unless travelling with a guide, it is best to park outside the forest and walk along the tracks through the forest.
There are also plans to introduce visitor facilities and open more hiking trails. The completion of these projects will make this beautiful sanctuary a lot more accessible to visitors.
• Accommodation in the forest is available for birders in a three-bedroom hut. Contact Zululand Birding Route for further information.
• The officer in charge of the Reserve is resident in Ongoye but does not have a telephone due to the remoteness of the area.
• Gate opening & closing: 06h00-18h00
• On arrival visitors must report to the office where a minimal gate fee and community levy can be paid.
Directions
Roads to Ongoye Forest are constantly being upgraded. The eastern entrance is the more popular with birders and takes one into the heart of the forest.
Drive on the R102 from Road Island Service Station outside Mtunzini towards Empangeni for 11,6 kms. Turn left into the D525 and follow this road for 4,5 kms before turning right into D1554.
Continue on this gravel road for 4,4 kms and just after passing Manzamnyama School (on the left) turn right into the Ongoye forest road.
For the next 2 kms difficult sections of the track have been concreted.
At the top of the hill there is a track road to the right leading to the Ranger's office where all visitors must report before proceeding with their visit to the forest.
The western access is by tarred road on the P240 from Obanjeni (about 6kms from Mtunzini on the R102) and gives visitors easy access to pockets of the forest and the western grasslands.