Battlefields of the Zulu Wars

We left Kruger National Park and drove south to KwaZulu Natal province to see several sites associated with the Zulu Wars (mid-1800's).  These occurred prior to the Boer War (around 1900) between the British and Dutch over who would claim South Africa as a colony.

Our first stop was the memorial to the Dutch Voortrekkers at Blood River.  The memorial is a full-scale replica of 64 wagons cast in bronze encircled in "laager" formation exactly as they were during the Battle of Blood River(1838) when the Voortrekkers held off a Zulu charge.

Our drive though the unpaved roads of the area was a challenge, both in terms of dodging livestock, pedestrians, and dangerously overloaded farm vehicles and figuring our where we were going.  The GPS was helpful, but it occasionally wanted us to take nonexistent roads.  It did eventually lead us to our next lodging - Rorke's Drift Hotel, overlooking the site of another famous battle.  It's in a stunning location.

The battles of Rorke's Drift (a drift is a ford in the river) and Isandlwana (about 6-7 miles away) were a famous British victory (Rorke's Drift) and disaster (Isandlwana) occurring on the same day in 1879.  The classic movies "Zulu" and "Zulu Dawn" do a fairly accurate job of telling the stories of Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana, respectively.

After a good night's sleep, we went to the Isandlwana site, which features white stone cairns indicating where British soldiers fell in battle.  The parallels to the Battle of Little Big Horn, which occurred just a few years earlier, are significant.  Big egos coupled with bad judgment - a sure recipe for disaster.

From there we drove up to the spot on a hillside where two lieutenants, Caughill and Melville, tried to save the queen's colors (but they would have spelled it colours) from falling into the enemy's hands.  They lost their horses - and the colors - while trying to cross the river, and made it up a steep hill before dying themselves.  The flag was later recovered downstream by other British soldiers.  

Getting to the memorial involved driving through a resort's property - we got past the guard at the gate because he mistook us for guests who were checking in, but a pickup from the resort came looking for us while we were at the memorial.  They left us alone, but they were keeping an eye on us.  The owner of the hotel where we're staying assured us that we have the right to access the public memorial even though the resort would prefer otherwise.

These sites are amid several small Zulu communities ("kraals" in Afrikaans).  This is the medical clinic in one of them.  We've noticed that nearly every community has what appears to be a modern clinic, but notice the razor wire on the fence surrounding it - theft and general lawlessness are rampant throughout South Africa, and razor wire is everywhere.