South Coast - Umkomaas Information
South Coast - Umkomaas
South Coast - Umkomaas Information
Umkomaas, a small coastal town on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa was formed when a harbour was built in 1861, to export sugar, on the mouth of the navigable Mkhomazi River. When the successful dredging of Durban harbour's sandbar and the arrival of the railway, the town suffered and like Port Shepstone the harbour fell into disuse. Large number of whales once used the estuary as a nursery, giving birth in the shallows. The Zulus named the river after this spectacle (uMkhomazi means the place of cow whales). The settlement was originally known as South Barrow, with its suburb known today as Ilfracombe then called North Barrow.In the late 1950s an Italian consortium developed the enormous Saiccor industrial cellulose plant beside the river a short distance inland from the town. A substantial number of Italian immigrants, predominantly from the vicinity of Udine, followed suit, and the result is that today Umkomaas probably has the largest Italian community relative to its total population of any town in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A notable event in the town's history was the fatal air crash involving a Kitty Hawk Air Force plane during the Second World War. The aeroplane is believed to have sunk into quicksand on the south bank of the river between the village and the present-day location of Saiccor. A local group made numerous attempts to recover the wreckage of the craft in the 1980s, but as the precise location of the plane is still not decisively known, it has never been recovered. Subsequently much speculation exists as to where exactly the plane is buried.
Umkomaas is most renowned for the superb diving opportunities created by the Aliwal Shoal, a coral reef about 5 kilometres offshore. Ragged-tooth sharks, Rock Cod, and a multitude of other species can be found in the shoal. Growth in diving-related tourism has grown dramatically in the past decade, although the Shoal features two particularly fine shipwrecks, the Nebo and the Produce, that long predate the current surge in popularity. Additional tourist attractions include the Umkomaas Golf Course, home of Tim Clark and universally regarded as being one of the best in KwaZulu-Natal, and the beautiful Empisini Nature Reserve, a forested area that features a delightful waterfalll and a number of bush walks.
Umkomaas' official animal is the Whale, representations of which can be found throughout the town, in the form of everything from colourful murals to the uniform of the local school. Humpback Whales are seen in the vicinity of Aliwal Shoal between June and October, whilst Ragged-Tooth, and Zambezi sharks have been sighted at the river mouth, particularly in the wake of the enormous Cyclone Demoina of 1987.
Other wildlife seen in the area include a multitude of snakes, virtually all of them harmless varieties like the Red-Lipped Herald and the Brown House Snake. Monkeys here are less common than in Scottburgh, but the birdlife is abundant, with the gregarious and friendly Hadeda Ibis perhaps the most intriguing. Small wild cats like the Genet and Civet have also been reported, though only on very rare occasions. The crocodiles found in the vicinity of Freeland Park and the lower Amahlongwa, 8 kilometres south, are not present in Umkomaas. Duiker abound and can be seen in Empisini, while the much larger and very beautiful Bushbuck is also seen in the vicinity.
Finally, one spectacle occurring almost every year is the fabled Sardine Run, the annual courtship migration (contingent on climatic conditions) of sardines from the Wild Coast and other southern locales to the warmer waters of KwaZulu-Natal. Usually occurring in July, it is a spectacular sight, since the sardines lure a large variety of predatory fish, seabirds, and sharks, on a scale rarely seen anywhere else on Earth.