South Africa’s iSimangaliso wetland park is a “revelation”

A holiday in the South African wetland park of iSimangaliso is a “revelation” and offers visitors a “smorgasbord” of activities, a travel writer has said.

A holiday in the South African wetland park of iSimangaliso is a “revelation” and offers visitors a “smorgasbord” of activities, a travel writer has said.

Translated from Zulu into English, iSimangaliso means miracles and is home to five different eco-systems, beaches and seas “teeming” with whales Kate Armstrong wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald.

A Unesco World Heritage Site, the park is situated on the north-east coast of South Africa and covers 328,000 hectares.

Ms Armstrong visited the region on a six-day walking tour which offered activities from snorkelling, horse riding and kayaking to tracking leatherback and loggerhead turtles – from November to February – and whale and bird watching, she explained.

Some 500 different varieties of birds exist in the park as well as zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos and antelope.

iSimangaliso is the third-largest park in South Africa and it was the first in the country to be named a World Heritage Site.