Visit Zululand Activities Umlalazi Reserve

Things to Do in Zululand: Umlalazi Nature Reserve

Umlalazi Nature Reserve offers a network of hiking trails, picnic spots and roads - making it the ideal place to spend a few hours if you want to enjoy the outdoors or catch up on some serious birding.

Umlalazi Nature Reserve

Welcome to the Umlalazi Nature Reserve


The Siyaya Coastal Park - about 42 kms of unspoilt coastline - stretches from the mouth of the Mlalazi River to the southern boundary of the Amatikulu Nature Reserve,includes two nature reserves as well as pristine coastal dune forest, mangrove forests, swamp forest, grassland and lala palm bushveld.
Amatikulu Nature Reserve - with 17 kms of coastline - also offers an observation tower for whale-spotting. This is one of only three land-based observation platforms on the KwaZulu-Natal coast and the view is one of the finest on the Zululand coastline.
The Umlalazi Nature Reserve (1 028 hectares) and the Amatikulu Nature Reserve (1 700 hectares) both offer a network of trails where visitors can view a wide range of creatures - great and small - from the fascinating fiddler crabs and mudskippers which inhabit the mangrove swamp to herds of zebra and giraffes grazing on grasslands overlooking the ocean.	Adjoining the Park are the excellent Twinstreams Environmental Education Centre - which has been introducing the wonders of nature to young and old for more than 50 years - and, The Prawn Shack, one of the more unusual restaurants in the area where visitors can spend a leisurely afternoon enjoying a variety of seafood dishes.

Hiking Trails

Just outside the Reserve is the Raphia Palm Forest which can easily be included in one of the trails through the Reserve. There is a boardwalk through the swamp forest which provides easy access to the heart of the colony of palms where the prime specimens create an awesome cathedral-like effect. The Palmnut vulture is often seen nesting near the top of the raphia palms

This forest is inhabited by a number of strange creatures of which the fiddler crabs are perhaps the best known. Male fiddler crabs have an enlarged claw, which is used both for displaying to attract females as well as in combat with other males.

During mating season the mangrove forest is alive with gaiety as the little males beckon to females with their enlarged claws.

Also worth looking out for is the mudskipper - a little amphibious fish - which can often be seen skittering over the mud surface searching for insects and small crustaceans to eat.

There is a range of hiking trails in and around the Umlalazi Nature Reserve. A short trail of about 15 minutes through one of the best examples of Mangrove Forest to be seen in South Africa, starts at the parking area at the lagoon and takes the visitor past John Dunn's Pool.
In the winter months this is the place to spot the Mangrove Kingfisher. Energetic hikers can continue on the trail which connects with the road to the mudflats which is often an excellent birding area. The circular Siyaya Coastal Dune Forest Trail starts at the parking area for south beach and follows the coastal forest adjacent to the Siyaya stream. Bushbuck, red, grey and blue duiker can be seen on this trail.
The Mlalazi River mouth trail is about 8kms long but takes one along the beautiful winding river until it enters the ocean at Port Durnford. The trail starts on the footpath linking north beach with the parking area at the lagoon. If hikers are returning along the beach they are advised to first check out the beach so they can recognise where to exit on their return.

Umlalazi Map

Umlalazi Nature Reserve is open daily: 05h00 - 22h00

An entrance fee to the Umlalazi Nature Reserve is payable but visitors staying outside the Reserve can pay once and receive a temporary entrance card.