Wildlife and Nature

The area known by geologists as the Barberton Mountainland is known locally, at least in part, as the Makhonjwa range. It lies across the map like an iconic figure from Nucain Mabusa’s art. It could be a dancer in a mask, one foot poised above Mbabane, the other nudging Badplaas, a hand flung out to Kaapschehoop and the other reaching up towards Komatipoort. The chin of the mask rests on Kaapmuiden.

Small, as mountain ranges go, the Makhonjwas are deeply folded and peaked, a dramatic landscape on a human scale. The drama is more than just their visual impact. These timeless mountains that define the north-western Swazi frontier, hold the best preserved records of the earth’s earliest life-forms. In keeping with their unique geology, their grassy ridges and forested valleys are full of rare and endangered species of plants and animals. Wildlife, vegetation and geology, all are inextricably interconnected.