The Battlefields (Kwa Zulu) 

Instead of being in the Drakensberg as planned we now found ourselves on the way to Kwa Zulu to visit the Battlefields from the Anglo-Boer & Anglo-Zulu wars (Rorke's Drift/Michael Caine and all that). We had intended going to see these anyway but not quite as soon as this.

The lady at the tourist office in Hokozisa had assured us we should have no problem finding accommodation at Dundee which is in the heart of the battlefields region so we headed back in the opposite direction from whence we came towards Kwa Zulu.

She had told us that the bad weather was affecting all of SA except for the NW (which is a very remote desert area) and was expected to last for a few more days, bloody weather was dogging us!

It rained all the way to Dundee and it was 5.30pm when we arrived. The tourist lady had recommended we go to the Royal Dundee hotel in the centre of town as we where bound to get a room. Dundee is not a big place but we still missed it on the first pass, once we found it we weren't particularly keen as it was bang in the centre of town and didn't look like there was secure parking for Rupert however at least it would be shelter for the night.  To our surprise, though this was midweek, they were full, it transpired the RSA Air force where in town re-enacting some battle of their own and had booked up nearly every bed in town, never have two been owed so much by so many!  

We drove around the town and out of it looking for somewhere to stay and but everywhere was full. One place was advertised on the main road out of town so we took this narrow farm track for about a mile until we eventually came across a run down farmhouse with no lights on, very chain saw massacre, needless to say we bottled out of knocking on that door! Another place out of town called the Thornley Homestead looked promising but we couldn't get anywhere near it due to a height barrier across the entrance to the driveway, clearly they didn't want 4x4 with roof racks!

By it was now quite dark so we drove back into town slightly concerned as we didn't want to camp unless we had to. Luckily at the last gasp we found a B&B called Chez Nous in a quiet suburb  and when we pulled up lo and behold we were greeted by a lovely French lady, Elizabeth, who owns the place with her SA husband. They had a little self contained annexe we could use which was perfect as we could park outside and sort out all our stuff, we were certainly relieved to be out of the rain and in somewhere nice for the night.

Next day we headed off to visit Isandlwana, the battlefield  where on the 22nd January 1879 the British suffered their biggest military defeat in Africa at the hands of the Zulus, with some 1,700 Brits and assorted South Africans losing their lives that day.

The battlefield itself is quite atmospheric as it lies in the shadow of the mountain from which it gets its name and is littered with white stone cairns and crosses which mark the spots where the bodies where found the day after the battle took place.

The place was more or less deserted even though by sheer coincidence it would be the 127th anniversary of the battle two days later. As we waked around we came across a group of guys earnestly looking this way and that, pointing here and there except for one chap who sat away from the group looking totally pissed off with the world.

As we walked by he must have heard our accents as he greeted us in a broad Geordie accent asking where we came from. His name was Andy from South Shields, he had been living in SA since the 1960's working in the mines but was now retired and lived in Dundee. It turned out he was a long standing member of the Dundee Diehards who each year re-enact the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift by fighting the local Zulu's.

We fell about laughing when Andy in all seriousness said he wasn't looking forward to the next day as it's the same thing every year, firstly the Zulu's get tanked up on the local brew and then the 20 or so white Diehards are overrun by 200+ drunken Zulu's in less than 20secs, I couldn't help saying it was probably quite a realistic re-run of the real thing!

In the afternoon we intended going onto Rorke's Drift, which is about 20kms away, but we ran out of time so instead we headed onto Fugitives Drift where the very few survivors of  the battle fled to as the tried to escape the pursuing Zulu's. The site is famous for the graves of Lieutenants Coghill and Mayberry who picked up the regimental colours when they fell at the battle and tried to take them to safety. Sadly at the Drift one was unseated from his horse crossing the river and they were caught and killed by the Zulu's on the opposite bank. 

next