Yellowwood Park, Durban

The first thing that strikes you about the leafy garden suburb of Yellowwood Park, just 14 kilometres from Durban, is that the majority of the roads are named after birds - Lark Lane, Kestrell Road, Wren Way - and that, as these may well indicate, this is a birdwatcher’s paradise, particularly with the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve well within its parameters.

Bordering on Chatsworth and south west of Durban, Yellowwood Park has a real sense of village life. The Community Hall or civic centre is a beautiful Cape Dutch building that is for hire for weddings and various other occasions, and the suburb is almost tranquil with its park-like surrounds.

The Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW), based in Yellowwood Park and on many a junior school’s list of educational places to visit, cares for injured and orphaned wild animals and birds - most of their injuries due to human negligence. And the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve, one of the most beautiful areas of coastal riverine forest and bush clump grassland mosaic still remaining in the greater Durban area, has some wonderful trails, picnic sites and the chance to see local birds, zebra and buck, some of them around the small dam just down from the car park.