NOTE: You DO NOT have to leave the trail. The dune life is extremely sensitive and the wildlife officials don't take kindly to people putting that in jeopardy. The cache is a meter and a half off the trail. Please be considerate.
Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve
Within the Umhlanga Conservancy just north of Durban can be found the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve (the "Ponds"). These areas include mainly coastal dune forest and aquatic habitats such as reed beds and shallow well vegetated ponds. These two "public" areas are linked by climax coastal forest, and extensive reed beds in the river floodplain, but access is restricted, as it is private land.
The KwaZulu-natal Wildlife Umhlanga Lagoon reserve is situated at the edge of the holiday town of Umhlanga rocks, is a refuge for many wetland and coastal forest birds, animals and plants. The birdlist comprises of some 208 species, with 60 species possible on a single visit in summer, while a winter visit should produce 40 species. Three hours are necessary to do this small reserve justice.
Birding, and Species of Interest.
From the car park, a single path leaves and crosses a short boardwalk. Here the path forks, the right hand trail crossing the reed bed and climbing along the primary dune to a viewing area overlooking the lagoon. From here, Kelp Gull, White-fronted Plover and a variety of terns can usually be seen on the sand bar, while Goliath Heron is often seen at the end of the lagoon. Black Crake may be seen and heard while passing through the reed bed, and Red-capped Robin-Chat, Green Twinspot and Dark-backed Weaver can be found along the dune crest.
The left hand path passes through a stand of Wild Hibiscus and enters the forest proper. Here one can find Crested Guineafowl, the southernmost occurrence of this species, and Brown Scrub-Robin, while in winter Spotted Ground-Thrush forages in the leaf litter on the ground. Search the trees for Black-throated Wattle-eye and Blue-mantled Crested-Flycatcher, which are regular here. The path forms a loop, from which Green Malkoha may be seen in the tangled canopy. A short path from this loop leads to a boardwalk that crosses the lagoon through the reed beds, in which southern Southern Brown-throated Weaver breed in summer, together with Yellow Weaver and Thick-billed Weaver. The path then climbs steeply up the primary dune to meet the first path, and one can return to the car park via this way.
Facilities
A picnic site is situated on the left-hand path, while public toilets are situated on the seaward dune.