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Geoff Lockwood's birding group at Ongoye Forest

The Best Guide to
the Forests of Zululand





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uMlalazi Tourism Association



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ESHOWE

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ONGOYE FOREST & the ZULULAND BIRDING ROUTE

Zululand has a spectacular 605 bird species and a wonderful range of destinations where they occur.

It is a treasure trove of 'specials' from the Green Barbet (found only at Ongoye Forest outside Mtunzini), the globally-threatened spotted Ground Thrush in Dlinza Forest, Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeons, Crowned Eagles, Green Twinspots, the little known Mangrove Kingfisher (at Umlalazi Nature Reserve) to the magnificent Palmnut Vultures of Mtunzini.

The Zululand Birding Route links the top 70 birding spots in Zululand into 14 local routes in three regions. The routes in the vicinity of Eshowe and Mtunzini form the southern region.

The Zululand Birding Route also offers a network of experienced local guides available for birders to use at very affordable rates.

Not only do these guides assist you with their excellent observation skills and finding the 'specials' but also add great value to any birding outing by providing security and peace of mind when traveling in some more out of the way areas.


• Both Mtunzini and Eshowe host annual birding weekends and birders who are interested in attending one of these sought-after events should check the Zululand Birding Route website for details.
Zululand Birding Route logo
CONTACT DETAILS:

Tel: 076 080 0545
guides@zululandbirdingroute.co.za
 ONGOYE NATURE  RESERVE
The Green Barbet - photography by Hugh ChittendenAerial view of Ongoye Forest - photography by Gareth Chittenden
The Green Barbet (left) will only be seen in Ongoye Forest.

Ground Hornbill - Photography by Hugh Chittenden
The southern ground Hornbill.
The Red Beech/Rooiboekenhout
Textures of the Forest: The Protorhus longifolia in new leaf.

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.
The 3 900-hectare forest runs for about 10kms on a high ridge parallel to the ocean and is about 4kms wide.
Botanically rich as it contains plants from the temperate Eastern Cape forests as well as the forests of tropical Africa, Ongoye is a 'must' for the discerning nature lover.
The 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.
Access to 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.

• Guides can be booked through Zululand Birding Route:
Tel: 076 080 0545
email: guides@zululandbirdingroute.co.za
Map of Ongoye Forest P240 - road being tarred to meet with P230 and the KIng Shaka Route Road to Mtunzini and the R102 Scale Road to R102 - combination of potholes, gravel and concrete strips Rangers office - please check in on arrival Accommodation for birders - contact Zululand Birding Route Weir Route to Eshowe via the P230 and the King Shaka Route Ongoye Forest
Getting there
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.
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.
 CYCADS: THE 'LIVING FOSSILS' OF ZULULAND'S FORESTS
Colonial plant hunters in Ongoye
Colonial plant hunters at Ongoye in the early 1900s stand next to the only specimen of Encephalartos woodii ever found in the wild.
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.
Wood's cycad in the Durban Botanical GardensThe wood's cycad in flowerSuckers off the original Wood's cycad
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.

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