Ithala Game Reserve

Ithala runs down from a high plateau to the Phongolo River through about 30,000 hectares of broken country, and the geology is unusual enough to be the reason people rate it: some of the rock here is around three billion years old, and the reserve is a bowl of cliffs, buttresses and gorges with the game moving through it rather than across open plains. The elevation range from about 400 to 1,450 metres packs several vegetation types into a short distance. Black and white rhino, giraffe, elephant, buffalo and eland are here; there are no lion, which changes the atmosphere and lets the reserve run walking trails and bush camps in ways big-cat reserves cannot. Ntshondwe camp sits under a cliff with a view down the valley. The roads are steep, some sections need care, and the reserve stays uncrowded even in season.

History

Middle Stone Age tools here date back about 200,000 years and Later Stone Age tools about 20,000, San hunter-gatherers left rock art in the eastern part, and later Nguni-speaking peoples smelted iron from the banded ironstone. Gold was found in the early 1900s, and the Wonder Mine, developed from 1905, worked on and off from 1910 to 1933 and produced 147 kg of gold (Wikipedia, Ithala Game Reserve).

What's there

• The ancient rock - cliffs and buttresses of stone around three billion years old.
• The vertical range - about a kilometre of altitude packed into one reserve.
• The walking trails - guided bush walks made possible by the absence of lion.
• Ntshondwe camp - accommodation under a cliff face above the valley.

When to go

May to September. Two days. Summer is hot and the grass is high.

Good to know

No lion, so the big five is incomplete here. Internal roads are steep with sharp gravel sections. It is a long drive from anywhere. Summer heat in the valley is severe, and the reserve empties of visitors then for good reason.

Nearby

Vryheid is west; the Phongolo river and Jozini dam are north.

Key facts