WESSA uMngeni Valley Nature Reserve & Education Centre — Attraction in uMgeni Local Municipality

THE GOOD : If you have a 4x4, then entrance fee is a good price, and the park is a nice setup. The Park itself is small about 6km in length and follows a section of the Umgeni Valley, you drive along the ridge of the hill with superb views of the Valley. Recently declared a nature reserve in 2019 and very conveniently located in central Howick with easy access off the main N3 highway. It also offers basic accommodation which is convenient to stay if you are visiting someone in the surrounding Retirement Villages.

The park is more suited to the young and energetic with a focus on hiking paths (about six), waterfalls, swimming area's, rock climbing, superb views of the Umgheni Valley, and a view of Howick falls as you drive. This is an animal park so you will also find 5 newly donated giraffe (2024), zebra, wildebeest, blesbok and other smaller animals. There are no big five here.

THE BAD : The entrance to the second main game park gate is ruined by approximately 10 meters of abandoned building rubble.

WARNING a 4x4 vehicle is required. Driving into the park the road progressively deteriorates and becomes undrivable. The photo shows the earlier good part of the road but it gets much, much worse. Our last visit the road was okay but it has not been maintained. To be honest this ruined our visit. We believe the park reception should CHECK with visitors that you own a 4x4 car BEFORE you pay entrance fee.

We were unable to turn around until reaching the Inkonka car park and "The Saddle" picnic spot which is 2km or 33% of the total road. There is almost nothing there, ONE parking space, we parked and walked 10 minutes down a hill and found nothing, no seating, no benches, no facilities. We "think" we reached the picnic spot which consists of a 5m circle of grass with 3 more paths leading away, one trail path, one bush camp, one path to the river. There was no signage indicating where the picnic spot was or how far it was. We did not investigate further and came back up. Not really suited for senior citizens.

Additionally, the local community across the valley, on top of the adjacent hill was playing LOUD music and conducting building work (LOUD banging) on a Sunday.

The only good thing about "The Saddle" picnic spot that we saw was that they had cut paths in the grass to make it...

If you like your hikes this is the place for you! i do not recommend the hike down to the waterfall if your not sure on your feet, or if your fitness levels are not top notch, this will take you out physically. the variety of animals are great, blou wilderbeest, and zebra are beautiful, but don't get to close. the team at this venue are fantastic in terms of team building and...

WESSA is a great place to get away from the city noises. There are many routes to go for walks, but make sure to have a good pair of hiking shoes for some of the hills could be a bit slippery if it was raining a few days before. Prices are also cheap and it's a nice place to go and...