The Swamp Nature Reserve

Wattled Cranes in the Swamp Nature Reserve

Lying really close to Pevensey in the southern reaches of the Drakensberg, the Swamp Nature Reserve is situated almost due west of Garden Castle Nature Reserve and, as its name suggests, it protects a huge highland swamp system. The highlands are formed by the Drakensberg / uKhahlamba and Maloti Mountain ranges that form a high dissected plateau roughly 2 500 metres above sea level with towering peaks and narrow, steep-sided river valleys.

There is very little written about the Swamp Nature Reserve, possibly because the reserve has no facilities. It lies close to the Himeville Nature Reserve. Both of these reserves lie outside of the main skeleton of the Drakensberg ridge of mountains closer to Bulwer, and the Swamp Nature Reserve, which attracts a wide variety of water fowl and is well worth the visit because of this, forms the tip of a triangle with the twin villages of Himeville and Underberg. No doubt the views from here are pretty spectacular.

Nevertheless, the Swamp Nature Reserve, together with the other smaller reserves - Himeville Nature Reserve and the Impendle Nature Reserve – both of which lie nearby – are worth a visit and should not be overlooked. Impendle is a welcome surprise because of the presence of the highly endangered blue swallow and Cape parrot. It protects mistbelt grassland and mistbelt forest – unique ecozones that are critical to the furture of the blue swallow, of which only 80 odd pairs survive in South Africa. Add the rare wattled crane, found in the Swamp Nature Reserve, and the value of the smaller, but no less important, reserves becomes evident.