The Fort Nottingham Nature Reserve is a small reserve of 260ha, 10km west of the village of Nottingham Road. It consists of grassland, wetland and afromontane forest biome. The Tony Kerr hiking trail starts in open grassland at the picnic site near where the Khathaza Stream traverses the slope of a thickly wooded hill and dips in and out of several gullies and seasonal watercourses. The walk should not take more than two hours. Even during the dry season, the trail is cool and damp in places due to the thick canopy cover of the indigenous trees.
The lower slopes of the hill are fairly densely covered with Ouhout (Leucosidea sericea), an invasive indigenous shrub. Some of the trees in the indigenous forest are Common Spike-thorn, Forest Knobwood, Red Pear, Sneezewood, Yellowwood, White Stinkwood, Cape Chestnut and Tree Fuchsia and different species of ferns, orchids, lichen and mosses.
A stillness hangs over the forest, broken by the occasional bark of a bushbuck, samango monkeys calling and a myriad of bird calls. Porcupine and bushpig leave evidence of their presence where they have rooted in the undergrowth for food. Reedbuck is often seen on the grasslands.
Visit the museum at nearby Fort Nottingham to learn more about the history of this area.
Access to the Fort Nottingham Nature Reserve is free, but visitors are reminded that it is a sensitive environmental area and should be treated as such.
WELL DONE WESTVIEW4 FOR FTF !!