Has anyone ever hunted the KwaZulu-Natal area of S.A.. Particularly the area just south of Swaziland and adjacent to the Mozambican border. If so what are the species available there and what is the terrain like?

I've been hunting KZN for about 25 years and a lot of it is rolling hills with mixed acacia.... But of course, it's a big area and generalising is usually a bad idea when talking about Africa. I'd need to know the name of a nearby town before I could give you details of the exact area you're talking about....

As to species, well most places buy game in so the best thing you could do is look at a trophy list for whatever company you're considering. It is of course though home to the nyala.

The area is on the Pongola river near Jozini lake

Oops, near the town of Pongola.

Know it well. As I said a lot of rolling hills & mountains (obviously) with flat land going down to the dam. Esp good nyala & red duiker in that area....as I said a lot of bought in game so species will vary from property to property.

The dam itself has very good fishing as well....esp for tigerfish.

We hunted near Pongola a few years back. Some of the farms we were on were surprisingly scenic - a mixture of open acacia savannah on the tops and lovely thick river bottoms with rock formations along the watercourses. Nyala and bushbuck country, a lot of it. Good kudu too, although probably not as large as up towards the Limpopo country. We hunted both fenced and unfenced properties - I took my Nyala on an unfenced propety, but that was more coincidence.

- mike

Near Pongola? Like a few miles east from the town, and the area lies to the north of the road?

Know it as better than excellent nyala area. I have never seen so many shootable trophy nyala in a single morning's drive around in my life. The place was swarming with Roland Ward size and better nyala. And the best of all is we were not even specifically looking for nyala, I was evaluating the substantial buffalo herd at the time to see if there are any real hard top bulls available. Saw enough to give the particular concession a "pass with distinction" on that score too!

The particular concession had a mixed lot of other game, some good, some not so good, but top nyala and very good South African buffalo. Funny, all the impala that were seen leaves much to be desired? Maybe the really big ones were all hunted or the genes for big horns are simply not there?

Beautiful hills and kloofs in the whole of the area south of Swaziland and north of the pongola river. It was as hot as hell in October, so must be pure hell by now. Winter will be a mild one compared to the area I come from.

Which Hunting Outfitter do you plan on hunting with? What are you after?

In good huntingf.

Andrew McLaren

I hunted between Hluhluwe and Pongola. Maybe it was because it was my first safari but I long to return. It is a beautiful area and has I think the finest opportunity to obtain a great Nyala with the horns forming the classic lyre shape. My Nyala was my second trophy taken and it is a beauty 29 1/2 perfect set. The more I learn of Africian game the happier and thankful for this great trophy I took in Natal. As said above it is also a good area for Bushbuck, Red Duiker and Suni. I took a great Bushbuck west of Pongola. If you do hunt the area I would recomend Ric Ray for processing your trophies for shipping.

I hunted north of Hluhluwe in June 2004. If you travel there you for sure need to harvest a nyala and a red duiker. I kick myself in the butt every time I think about passing up a trophy red duiker; however, I wasn't stupid enough to pass on a trophy nyala. I'll for sure return someday and collect my red duiker.

Good luck!

I can vouch for what the others have said. It's one of my favorite areas to hunt. Best tropies include nyala (excellent), warthog (very good genetics there), common reedbuck (nice, nice), red duiker, suni and bushbuck.

I've seen some good bush pig there as well. The countryside is beautiful being semi tropical and a bit wetter than most areas so somewhat greener.

Once, in some real thick stuff I was crouched down on a game trail hoping for a chance at a red duiker. I was using a rabbit squealer and a common duiker ewe came within three feet of me. She never figured out what we were (the hunting group) and just slowly turned and walked away stopping to look back at us periodically. That was real neat. The tracker was particularly impressed.

I'd pass on the impala and kudu, these are of much better quality in the Limpopo Valley. Be careful on the non native stuff, some of those properties will offer gemsbok, pass, the ticks are hard on them, it's not their natural habitat. I think Steve can vouch for that as well.

You might see some snakes there as well, I always see a few, usually cobras.