NDUMO'S CHALLENGES
The adjacent rural area is densely populated and the competition for fertile farming land has spilled over into the reserve. After politicians promised local farmers access to 20 ha of prime land inside Ndumo back in 2009, the eastern side of the park (between the Phongolo River and the eastern border fence) has slowly been turned into fields.
It's estimated that more than 600 ha of Ndumo's total land area of about 10 117 ha has become farmland. The affected area doesn't have any tourism infrastructure, however, and as a visitor you never enter that part of the reserve.
Source: Tony Carnie,
Daily Maverick #168
It's late at night and a fiery-necked nightjar chirrups from one of the many marula trees in the rest camp at Ndumo. Occasionally, I hear a marula fruit fall onto the chalet roof with a loud clank, followed by the sound of it rolling down and dropping softly onto the grass. But the noises don't keep me up. I love listening to them, in fact, because they tell me that I'm back in one of South Africa's most incredible reserves after more than a decade.
The geography, climate and vegetation of Ndumo make it a unique habitat for many bird species that you'd normally struggle to see in South Africa. This part of KwaZulu-Natal is similar to the adjacent Mozambican coastal flats
