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KZN - Port Edward |
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On KwaZulu-Natal's southern border with the Eastern Cape. The final centre you get to before crossing the provincial boundary into the Eastern Cape's famed Wild Coast region, Port Edward, which lies on the banks of the Umtamvuna River (a major watercourse that rises on the high slopes of the southern Drakensberg) is a pretty little palm-festooned place that was named after the Prince of Wales, later Edward Vll. The town is overlooked by Tragedy Hill, so called because a white settler group led by Henry Francis Fynn, one of Durban's founders, met a grisly end there in 1831 (the Zulu believed a false rumour that the intruders were planning to attack their leader Dingane). The area is also rich in stories of shipwrecks. Port Edward has superb stretches of beach, among them Glenmore, Kidd's, Palm, Silver and Peter Pan Bay. Just down the seaboard (in Eastern Cape Province) is the celebrated Wild Coast Sun hotel-casino-leisure complex. Nature Reserves The Mpenjati Reserve preserves a fragile stretch of the river of that name; board-sailing and picnicking are popular visitor activities. Trafalgar Nature Reserve encloses a fossilised offshore forest and the stretch of shoreline from the lagoon to the Mpenjeti estuary. Most notable, however, is the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, where you'll find stunning scenic beauty in the forests and deep, wooded gorges. The sanctuary is home to more than 700 different forms of plant life, including 35 orchid species. The area is especially rich in birds of prey, among them the rare Cape vulture (a breeding colony of them), the crowned eagle and the peregrine falcon. Nearest towns: Margate and Port Shepstone are just up the coast; Port St Johns lies to the south-west; Bizana and Kokstad are inland. |
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PORT EDWARD Western Cape
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