Guma isn't a place for big game; it's a deep-water environment that offers good bird watching and fishing.

The vegetation around the lagoon itself is mainly papyrus, though you'll also find large stands of phragmites reeds. You'll also find the odd waterberry, Syzygium cordatum, and water fig, Ficus verruculosa, especially in the smaller channels and backwaters.

On the banks, the riverine vegetation is thick and lush. It includes plenty of wild date palms, Phoenix reclinata, river beans, Sesbania sesban, and potato bushes, Phyllanthus reticulates, which are members of the euphorbia family, and are not related to potatoes at all – but smell the air on a warm evening and you'll realise where their name comes from.

Also keep an eye out for large sour plum, Ximenia caffra, water pear, Syzygium guineense, jackalberry trees, Diospyros mespiliformis, and the occasional sausage tree, Kigelia Africana – one of which greets you as you enter Guma Lagoon Camp. Further from the water, you'll often find acacias: camelthorn, Acacia erioloba, knobthorn trees, Acacia nigrescens, and umbrella thorn, Acacia tortilis, are the main species here. There are a few baobabs, Adansonia digitata, in the area, but they're not common here.

The more common birds include fish eagles, many species of herons, egrets, warblers, bee-eaters and kingfishers, pygmy geese and greater and lesser jacanas. Look for red-shouldered widows in the papyrus, and reed cormorants and darters sunning themselves on perches over the water.

In the riverine forest areas you can find Heuglin's robins, crested and black-collard barbets, green pigeons, various sunbirds and, in the summer, the spectacular paradise flycatchers in breeding plumage.