Located only a few kilometres from Caribbean Estates, the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve is an absolute must. Run by the KwaZulu Conservation Services, it covers some 3250 hectares and lies along 25 kilometres of the river. There are several trails for walkers of varying degrees of ease and severity.

Apart from the myriad varieties of wild flowers and grasses (some very rare), there are numerous small mammals, including bushbabies, samango and vervet monkeys, chacma baboons, red hares, clawless otters, mongooses and spotted genets. Large nocturnal predators such as black-backed jackal and servals hunt rodents in the grasslands. Some of the buck you may see are blue duiker, oribi and bushbuck; and after dark the common duiker and reedbuck.

To quote Tony Abbott from the Reserve's publication: "The magic of hidden waterfalls, of staggeringly beautiful cliffs of curious colours and fantastic formations, the views over grassland to gorge and sea beyond, the blaze of colour as the grasslands burst into spring flowers ... a complete peace: all this and more is here to tempt you".