Zululand

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July 9th 2007

Published: August 9th 2007

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Jaseandrach

Zulu Warrior

Dressed as Impi in Shakaland

Zululand!

Waved goodbye to dippy Debbie the Dog Lover at St. Lucia to drive to Eshowe, our stop over on route to the battlefields. We decided to visit Shakaland, a rather touristy but fun Zulu themed resort! Shakaland was originally part of a film set for a TV show back in the Eighties. Someone had the bright idea of preserving the homestead as a tourist attraction when filming finished. We had a tour of the "living museum" to learn about the infamous King Shaka, who usurped his older brothers to become King. He is credited with expanding the Zulu people from a relatively small tribe, by dominating all neighbouring tribes with his clever military strategy of attacking the enemy with a Bull & Horn formation of Zulu warriors, and also by modifying the spear design to the more effective asegia (spelling?) which was great for ripping through soldiers. Our guide introduced us to various characters who demonstrated various aspects of traditional Zulu life, including the Medicine Man and a sampling session of the Zulu beer. Apparently women aren't supposed to drink the noxious brew but us tourists must have been exempt from this ruling because we had to try a cupful.

Zulu Warrior in Shakaland

Meeting a scary Zulu warrior

It was very much like the sogum beer we had tasted in Swaziland - pretty foul!

The finale of the tour was a singing and dancing display of Zulu and other traditional African dance styles. The dancing was pretty impressive, with lots of energetic blokes in skimpy outfits and fluffy legwarmers jumping and stomping about. It looked like lots of fun but one of the dances really reminded us of musical bumps! There were a couple of little ones joining in the dances with their own little shields and spears. They were very endearing because they were taking it so seriously and really concentrating on getting the dance moves right.

Eshowe
We went for a mooch around town and Rach broke the Ten Commandments of Backpacking and bought (shock horror!) a travel hairdryer! Well it has been bloody freezing since we left Malawi and she keeps getting icicles in her hair. We arrived at The George Hotel, which had sounded pretty promising in our Coast to Coast guide as it was a historic building and had its own microbrewery. However, it turned out to be rather grotty! Luckily for us, some French girl also called Rachel had nabbed

Rach & Jase in Zululand

our dorm booking so we had a free upgrade to a twin room. The dorms looked awful but our hotel room wasn't much better either. We went to the bar to sample some of the brewery's best offerings, but they only had two lagers left on top and one was a boring Pilsner. We decided to have an early night but couldn't get to sleep because there was a dreadful whooshing and banging noise every three seconds. Jase got really grumpy so Rach went to investigate. The night manager wasn't much help and didn't really take us seriously. He asked Rach if she was scared of the noise! Well we knew the building used to be a brothel for British soldiers, so did he seriously think I was worried about some prozzie ghost running wild in the attic? Jase had more joy with the night manager and got him to turn the decript old water heating system off so we could get some peace and sleep.

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