Msikaba Gorge location in Pondoland South Africa

The reserve is situated on the coast of north-eastern Pondoland, in the Eastern Cape. It is a 7720-ha coastal reserve with open grasslands, dotted with indigenous forest patches and swamp forests, flanked by the magnificent forested ravines of the Msikaba and Mtentu rivers.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances and Debates in the Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Msikaba Red Sand Dunes along South Africa's Pondoland coast are a recently discovered open-air site complex that ...

The Pondoland Marine Protected Area is an inshore conservation region in the territorial waters of South Africa. The MPA was proclaimed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, in Government Gazette No. 26431 of 4 June 2004 in terms Section 43 of the Marine ...

Pondoland or Mpondoland (Mpondo: EmaMpondweni), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo people. Mpondoland stretches between the Mthatha River, ...

A 1994 survey found that about 7.5% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas include the Great Fish River Nature Reserve, Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve, and Thomas Baines Nature Reserve. Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot – Southern Africa biodiversity hotspot

Endemic reef fish such as red steenbras, seventy-four, black musselcracker and scotsman are protected in the central zone which excludes all boat-based fishing. Along the shore, four short stretches of coastline are closed to fishing and invertebrate harvesting. Importantly the magnificent Mtentu and Msikaba estuaries are fully protected as part of this MPA.

The exceptions are Colleywobbles (IBA SA088) and Mtentu and Msikaba inside the Mkhambathi Nature Reserve (IBA SA087). Surveys undertaken in the Transkei in 2012 showed that many colonies are faring better than previously recorded. Thembukazi and Ngozi in the Mzimvubu Gorge historically consisted of 43 and 72 pairs, the fifth and third most important colonies in the Transkei respectively.

Rugged sandstone cliffs, layered with rolling grass lands, teeming with game that plunge into aqua blue waters and ivory coloured beaches below, Pondoland is a hidden paradise and a largely undiscovered Garden of Eden – ravines where birds of prey soar, waterfalls roar, and endemic fauna cling, this is a place where one comes to reflect and refresh. A place where you will be humbled, feel privileged and reminded of what is truly important in life. ... The Msikaba camp is built unobtrusively inside indigenous coastal dune forest where one has immediate access to the vast, open beach and to the phenomenal Msikaba river.

Pondoland is located in the coastal part of the Eastern Cape province. It is situated in the former Pondo Kingdom and the traditional region of the Pondo people, one of the Xhosa speaking groups.