Doornkop Fish and Wildlife Reserve

Doornkop Fish and Wildlife Reserve occupies rolling hills and grassland savannah in the Komati Valley outside Carolina, in the Albert Luthuli district of Mpumalanga. The reserve is fully game-fenced and malaria-free, which makes it accessible year-round without prophylactics.

The Komati River and the Swartwaterspruit both run through the property. Both hold fish — yellowfish and trout — and fishing is available to visitors. The reserve currently carries fifteen species of non-dangerous large mammals, and two hundred and three bird species have been recorded here.

Game viewing works across several methods: you can go out on foot, on horseback, by mountain bike, or on an open vehicle. Each gives a different read of the terrain. The hills hold waterfalls and patches of valley forest, and the reserve also contains ruins worth exploring on foot.

Carolina is the nearest town, and the Komati Valley location places Doornkop within Mpumalanga's escarpment country — a landscape of grassland, river systems, and indigenous forest rather than the flat bushveld more typical of the lowveld further east.