The South Coast - Paradise of the Zulu Kingdom

The Great Ride...continued

Back at the coast and continuing south, we enter the district of Pennington...which incorporates the quiet beaches and beautiful bays of Umdoni Park, Ocean View, Kelso, Sezela, Bazely Beach, Ifafa, Elysium and Mtwalume. Pennington is where you'll find one of this country's Top 12 golf courses - the prestigious Selbourne Park Golfing Estate - billed as a 'cross between Gleneagles and Augusta'. And as its name implies, this magnificent 18-holer is complemented by an ultra-modern country club and luxury accommodation. The nearby Umdoni Links offers the classic combination of majestic, sloping fairways and wonderful views of both the ocean and surrounding hills.

For a 'non-competitive' foray into the wonders of nature, Ifafa Lagoon, Nkomba Bird Sanctuary, Mkamati and Nkumbane Dams are all perfect for appreciating the profusion of flora and fauna waiting to be enjoyed in this part of the world.

zoom Selbourne golf course.

A couple of Surfer's Secrets later we arrive in Hibberdene... a holiday town in its own right that offers all the attendant facilities of a fully-fledged resort playground...plus a blossoming abundance of the iridescent Hibiscus blooms that characterise the central South Coast.

zoom The South Coast is renowned for its array of Hibiscus flowers.

Leaving Hibberdene we pass through a stretch of coastal bush and the beach resorts of Mzumbe, Sunwich Port, Bendigo, Southport and Umtentweni before encountering yet another major obstacle in the Great Ride of Dick King and Ndongeni - the mouth of the Mzimkulu - 'Great Home of All Rivers'. It's harbour-potential was recognised a quarter-century after they crossed, and named Port Shepstonein honour of a Colonial bureaucrat. Construction was delayed until 1882, however, when one- man-demolition-and-dredging-team William Bazely finally began transforming the river mouth. The town was officially declared that same year...its population of British adventurers swelled first by Norwegian and German settlers, then descendants of the Boer Voortrekkers, and later by Indian entrepeneurs and indentured sugar plantation labourers who exchanged return passage for small parcels of land. Artefacts found in the area indicate that the Khoi and San people had already 'been and gone' thousands of years previously. Port Shepstone harbour proved far more successful than the earlier attempts up the coast. The resulting 'boom' inspired plans for further development...beginning with assembly of another present-day National Monument, the lighthouse cast in Britain and shipped out in component form.

Another die had already been cast, though - ships were still sinking or running aground along the entire coastline...and the railway was creeping ever closer. When the first locomotive and carriages reached their terminus on the north bank of the Mzimkulu River on 26th July 1901, Port Shepstone's harbour extension was still incomplete but the coastal shipping service was already doomed.

zoom The famous Port Shepstone Lighthouse is a national monument.

The train ride from Durban remains a quaint and leisurely, scenic journey, while Port Shepstone has evolved into a thriving, multi-cultural, amenity-filled commercial centre flanked by 18 kilometres of golden beach and holiday hamlets. The picturesque 18-hole golf course of mostly level fairways is an easy walk alongside the river, where plans are afoot to incorporate an ultra-modern marina.

The town's railhead status grew during the first quarter of the 20th century with construction of a 122 kilometre narrow-gauge freight- link to the interior. Later adapted to carry passengers, the Banana Express is today a tourist s delight...meandering past rural Zulu villages on its journey through open grassland, waving fields of sugarcane and indigenous forests...to Harding.

Referred to as 'No-Man's Land' during the era when local tribes, Zulu imperialists and European opportunists each sought the lion's share of its natural spoils, the Harding district remains an environmental treasure-trove. Beneath the Ngele Mountain range, the Weza-Ngele state forest nature reserve is home to enormous old trees, many small animals and an encyclopaedic collection of fantastically-plumed birds. Thanks to well-maintained trails, the visitor can absorb these splendours on foot, from horseback or mountain-bike. Well-stocked trout dams lure fly-fishing enthusiasts from all quarters.

En route back to the coast, Paddock Station is a favourite jumping- off point for Oribi Flatsand a tour of the Oribi Nature Reserve. This wonder of the natural world is tucked within the doubly- awesome, 27-kilometre Oribi Gorge...with thousand-million-year-old boulders at the base of cliffs formed from sandstone deposited some 365 million years ago. Hiking and mountain-bike trails provide up- close opportunities, but the rare plants and animals - plus 250 recorded bird species - can be equally-appreciated from a number of easily-accessible viewing sites. Light aircraft 'flips' are available for panoramic photo-opportunities. Too sedate? With increasingly-popular Adventure Sports now the established 'Code of the Millenium', Oribi Gorge presents the world's highest abseiling challenge...plus white-knuckle, white-water rafting during the November-to-April rainy season. Continues...

zoom A number of horseriding trails can be found in the Weza/Ngele forest.

Copyright © Tourism KwaZulu-Natal