Umkomaas, KwaZulu-Natal

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.

The Umkomaas or Mkhomazi River is a dominant feature of the local landscape, being the largest river on the South Coast. Occasionally, raft races, canoeing, and other sporting events are held on the river. During the winter dry season, the river mouth has been known to silt up considerably, but after heavy rains it carries substantial quantities of brown sediment into the Indian Ocean.

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 Shoal's 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 waterfall and a number of bush walks. The nearby settlement of Clansthal was the home of Conservationist Tony Pooley in the 1980s and 1990s. Swedish tennis player Mats Wilander was a regular visitor in the 1990s, and is rumoured to have been the owner of a large hotel on the corner of Moodie and Reynolds Street.

Additional infrastructure includes the roads and railways built by and for Saiccor's operations, together with a stretch of Spoornet-owned coastal track, upon which can still occasionally be seen the steam locomotive 'Banana Express'.

Saiccor has long proven to be a controversial plant. It was purchased by international Pulp giant Sappi in the 1990s, and while it continues to provide jobs for thousands of workers, and a livelihood for their dependents, concerns were raised in the 1990s over the widespread asthma and other health conditions afflicting children at the nearby Umkomaas Drift School. Additionally, a large amount of effluent is pumped out to sea, and major extensions of this effluent pipe were carried out in the late 1990s, though Saiccor maintained for many years that the effluent was largely harmless. A well-known act of protest against Saiccor occurred in the 1990s when a local man gatecrashed a Saiccor function and challenged company executives to drink a glass of effluent. Saiccor is today the world's largest producer of chemical cellulose, and employs slightly over 1000 people, its pulp being used largely for products such as acetate and cellophane.

Quarrying and furniture assembly industries are also carried out in the vicinity. A co-educational primary school, founded in 1913, is found in the centre of the village. Suburbs of Umkomaas include Widenham, well-known for its colossal bush-covered sand dune known as 'Sand City', and the planned community of Saiccor Village, built for Saiccor workers in the 1950s and 60s. Excellent beaches are found at Widenham and the Mkhomanzi north bank near Ilfracombe, which is the launchimg point for many boat excursions and diving trips to the Aliwal Shoal.

The population of the neighbourhood, if including Widenham, Saiccor Village, and Ilfracombe, is about 4,500.

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, recently covered by Jeff Corwin on the Animal Planet television channel, and the sardines lure a large variety of predatory fish, seabirds, and sharks, on a scale rarely seen anywhere else on Earth.

Umkomaas has been one of the coastal towns recently affected by the inclement weather conditions, high winds, and freak waves generated by the storms of late March 2007. The beachfront areas and complex formerly known as 'The Whaler' were some of the regions affected by the storm.

External links

* [http://www.aliwalshoal.com Aliwal Shoal diving, dive courses and accommodation]
* [http://www.aliwalshoal.info Aliwal Shoal information]