ZuluWaters Game Reserve

Overview

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Your own Private African Retreat, ZuluWaters Game Reserve offers you the exclusive use of its 3500 hectare estate, your time here tailored to create the experience you want from Africa.

Set in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountain range in Kwa-Zulu Natal, ZuluWaters Game Reserve, a malaria free area, promises a uniquely intimate experience with the African wilderness. To ride adventurously close to the herds of Wildebeest and Buffalo whilst on a guided game trail, casting for wild brown trout in the 15km stretch of Bushmans River or just listening to the sound of the breeze in the grasses, ZuluWaters's blend of exclusivity and adventure makes for an experience of Africa unlike any other.

Those who spend time at ZuluWaters Private Reserve are left with a sense that something in them has changed, that they are perhaps a little more than when they arrived - a little more fulfilled, a little more inspired, a little more human.

One of the three accommodations, Nandi House, is built on an old reservoir dating back to the early 1900's. The house was designed by Richard Stretton of Koop Design in Durban in 2005 and formed part of the SAIA-Afrisam Award for Sustainable Architecture which was won by in 2010. The social and environmental philosophy that Dalton and Koop share was instrumental in the creation of the heritage-inspired, contemporary African aesthetic, using environmentally sensitive methods, and involving the local community.

ZuluWaters has become a major force for change in the area. It has consolidated a number of different properties under its management, purchased and settled various animals once indigenous to the area, initiated the systematic eradication of alien plants, and participated in initiatives such as the Biodiversity Stewardship Programme of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

ZuluWaters proudly hold a sophisticated holistic view of food production; to deal with excess game, culling is the most feasible option. They have built a venison processing unit in a registered rural game abattoir on site which we will be marketing as ZuluWaters Premium Venison, i.e. organic venison, sausages, bresaola, carpaccio, smoked bacon and ham. These can be vacuum packed and delivered anywhere in South Africa. An extensive organic vegetable & herb garden and orchard has been established which seasonally probably supplies 50% of their needs. Any surplus is sold to grocers in Escourt. Only organic fertilisers and worm wee are used. Bee hives are also kept for honey.

ZuluWaters’s policy of employing local people and investing in them through skills training in the workplace has led to a number of exciting projects, from the provision of Environmental Services to a collaboration with KOOP Design making furniture from invasive alien timber, dried on site in a solar kiln.

The Dalton Education Trust (NPO No. 078-716 / PBO No. 930 034 579) was founded by ZuluWaters Game Reserve in 2008 as a way to give back to the surrounding communities of Dalton Bridge, Ezindikini and Mhubheni. It has a specific focus on Early Childhood Development, and aims to provide an intervention that addresses the current needs of the community, while also investing in the future of the area’s children. Five projects were identified as priorities: Establishing a Network of Early Childhood Educators; Psychomotor Education; Construction of the Sakhithemba Education Resource Centre and Ezindikini Crèche which follow the WESSA Eco-Schools Programme.

At a ford on the Heatherspruit, if you know where to look, you will see the grooves where young men of the amaHlubi came to sharpen their Assegais, the traditional short-handled spear invented by King Shaka of the amaZulu. Two rock art Shaman sites on the reserve are registered by Amafa with an associated management plan.

KwaZulu Natal Midlands Green Map South Africa