Umtiza Walk

Treat yourself to an unforgettable experience walking through one of South Africa’s unique indigenous forests. Not only do we boast one of the three last known populations of Umtiza trees and one of the only four populations of a rare Veniliodes cycad eating moth but also a vast variety of other indigenous trees and plants, most of which with some interesting traditional uses. Accompanied by a guide you will walk down to a lush riverbed which you will cross to access the pristine forest. Your guide will lead you along a narrow natural forest path sharing interesting information about many of the trees and plants along the way.

Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve offers an Umtiza Forest Trail and just like all the activities offered on the game reserve, the Umtiza Forest Trail is guided.

This trail is a slow leisurely walk of about 1 hour in duration whereby your guide talks about various trees and plants in detail, although an hour in duration, the walk is not very far in distance as doing a quick walk through the trail without any talking would take you a mere 10 minutes of your time.

As you can imagine, there are specific bird species that prefer to live in dense forests and walking the trail may be your only chance of seeing those specific species. (Narina Trogon, Knysna Turaco etc.)

From the trail entrance it is near impossible to see where you are going to start the trail which is great. The entire Forest Trail is comprised of natural animal paths that we have followed in a circular direction to lead you back to the road near to where you started. Using existing animal paths greatly reduces any negative impact on the environment.

At the start of the trail, your guide will lead you on a short walk along a rocky riverbed. Here the guides love to stop and talk about amazing and almost perfectly circular holes in the rocks.