A Zulu Dawn for a Birthday Girl, Blood River and Spion Kop

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What more could a girl ask for, even surpassing last year's trip to the KGB Museum in Vilnius...a trip to the battlefields of South Africa!!. In view of the difficult transport issues, we retreated back to Durban to take charge of a Toyota Tazz - brand new, but otherwise known as a 1986 Corolla.

The battlefields are about 3 hours north of Durban in Natal Province and we chose a tortureous route through the depths of Zululand, ending up in Dundee - apparently once known as the coal capital of South Africa. First stop on the tour was Blood River, the scene of a few of the early Boer settlers holding off a superior force of Zulus in 1838. The place has apparently great significance to the Afrikaaners, who have clearly spent a great deal in constructing a monument of 64 life size bronze wagons - pity they never bothered with a tar road to get there!

At vast expense, a birthday meal was promised at the Dundee Golf and Country Club. Alas and for your future information, meals are not served everyday. As we had a car, we risked the buzzing nightlife of the most popular eatery in downtown Dundee and found a clientele that were a cross between Invercargill and Little Britain.

Rorke's Drift was next on the agenda, which was everything you can imagine from the film Zulu (without an appearance by Michael Caine) although it was difficult to conceive how the Zulus failed to overrun it. They apparently had no such problems a few days before at Isandlwana, where we seemed to have chosen an indefensible piece of terrain. The most moving of them all was Spion Kop, although quite clearly we made some major tactical blunders to contribute to our losses.

The original plan was to drive back to Durban via Pietermaritzburg, but there is a big double marathon, the Comrades Marathon, taking place this weekend and the place was mobbed. We opted to come back to Durban and spent some time driving along the famous beachfront - part of which is no go area and the rest is a cross between Miami Beach and Redcar.

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Photos

Rorke's Drift
No sign of Michael Caine

Isandlwana
Zulu monuments on Battlefield

Spion Kop
Boer monument

Blood River
Circle of 64 bronze wagons

Birthday Girl
...no expense spared, she even got a dessert!!

Rorke's Drift
Zulu monument

Isandlwana
British monuments on Battlefield

Spion Kop
British Monument at Spion Kop

Spion Kop
British mass graves at Spion Kop

Spion Kop
John on the battlefield

Comments

[alex waring]

Battlefields
Ah, I didn't get to see the battlefields, though I would very much have liked to. I'm glad to have caught up on it with your blog entry here, thank you! It must have been quite amazing to have been in Rorke's Drift. Great that you were able to celebrate a birthday in style, and Durban being a cross between Miami and Redcar made me laugh - very true!

[John Miranda]

Battlefields
When my sister and I were very small and left in the care of my Dad, he used to take us to the "pictures". My 2nd film apparently was Zulu. It subconsciously stayed with me and I was never going to miss Rorke's Drift. As a football fan, Spion Kop - the battle which named many a steep standing terrace in a football ground - was always on the list too! Durban : Miami : Redcar - perhaps I was being unfair ..... neither Durban nor Miami can boast a vertical pier.