Darnall is a small scenic sugarcane town situated along the R102 Regional Route in the Dolphin Coast area of KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa, inland from the main coastline and close to Nkwazi.
Darnall is located inland from Zinkwazi beach, between the seaside village of Blythedale Beach and the Tugela River mouth.
Home to the Darnall sugar factory, Darnall falls within the KwaDukuza Local Municipality, which is part of the iLembe District Municipality.
Darnall has largely managed to stay ‘off the map’ in the sense that you can snap up property here for next to nothing still, a situation that is slowly changing these days, given that Darnall is so close to the growing in popularity northern swathes of the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
Darnall, called that because the town’s founder named it after his hometown in the United Kingdom, is only about an hour’s drive from Durban and around 15 minutes to the beach of Zinkwazi. This makes it a perfect getaway opportunity from Durban, particularly for those who want to escape from the more popular beachside villages as an alternative for days that aren’t beach-friendly.
Besides wonderful views of undulating sugarcane-coated hills and guaranteed downtime, there are several other options open to visitors. The Harold Johnsson Nature Reserve just north of Ballito offers a great variety of game and bird life, and contains two national monuments worth seeing, particularly Fort Pearson, built in 1878, which sits on a bluff overlooking the pont-crossing on the Tugela River. In fact, the entire reserve used to function as a British military camp. The beautiful 104-hectare reserve offers picnic and braai facilities and sightings of zebra, duiker, bushbuck, and crocodiles.
If you’re after greater game, then a drive out to see the Big Five at the Umfolozi Reserve is but an hour and a half’s drive from Darnall. But really, one comes to Darnell to retire from the busy lifestyle of city living, peppered with the odd lazy beach day.
