WIN A MILLION RAND IN PRIZES
FINDERS KEEPERS
Dunn held court with tribal elders in the mid1800s.
In Eshowe, like every other area we visited, links to the past are ever present.
Walking the 10m-high boardwalk through the treetops of the lush 250ha Dlinza forest with the whisper of the trees and the calls of the birds about you, it is not hard to imagine Shaka’s wives taking refuge here in times of war.
We returned to Durban and the clamour of modern life. But we had had a glimpse of Jeqe’s miracles and wonders — and urge you to go and see them for yourself.
To this day, we Zulus have a saying: ‘If you have seen miracles, you have seen what Jeqe saw’
Snake Eagle and a small population of palmnut vultures that live in the crowns of the giant raffia palms. There’s an estuary for swimming or boating and vast stretches of empty beaches.
As with Isimangaliso, the area has strong links with its past and also has its champions like Bruce Hopwood, landscaper and member of the uMlalazi Tourism Association.
Hopwood showed us the famous Milkwood tree — the “Indaba tree” — on the river bank where King Cetshwayo’s “white chief” John E’D walked a steep path to the top of a dune on the eastern shores of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. To my left was the lake, to my right the sea, in between, five different ecosystems. The cinemascopic view took my breath away.
“iSimangaliso means the place of miracles,” said Thandi Shabalala, the park’s tourism information officer who had led the trek and would later lead us down a windy path to the rocky shore and pounding waves.
It is said that Jeqe, Shaka’s body servant, fled here in 1828 when the great king was assassinated, and settled here in the land of the Tonga people.
“To this day, we Zulus have a saying: ‘If you have seen miracles, you have seen what Jeqe saw’. It is the place of ultimate wonder and beauty,” said Shabalala.
We rode horses on the beach and took a boat ride on the lake that borders the little town of St Lucia. This, the opportunity to spot hippos, crocs and myriad birds, may be a perpetual tourist haunt but it’s also an activity that locals themselves cannot get enough of.
The type of tourists coming through is changing, said skipper Dennis Roberts. “These days it’s more about eco-conscious families who have an appreciation of our natural heritage.”
We wandered around the Mlalazi reserve whose thick coastal forest is home to the rare Spotted Ground Thrush, Southern Banded