The Battlefields

I must say, I have never had a very keen interest in the Battlefields. The only knowledge that I have, or had, is from the history lessons in school, which in any case is a lifetime ago. We also never had any forefathers fighting in any of these Boer wars or Zulu wars and I have just always been detached from all of it, however like anything, if you are at the place and you hear the passion of the guide taking you through the actual "battles" and you see the vastness of the area where these battles were fought, you get sort of engrossed and it is as if you also become part of the history.
Our first stop was at Spionkop. It is a hair raising trip up to the "kop", especially with a campervan but once there, in the cold howling wind, you begin to understand some of the hard ships that those soldiers must have been faced with. Very glad not to have been involved with that war. Many people died, as most of them were totally unprepared for the conditions, the duration of the battle and the fact that they ran out of food and the shear fastness of the area to be defended.
We arrived in Dundee late afternoon and moved into the campsite, called Kwa-Rie for the next 3 nights. What a lovely place. Small, pleasant and with great people. It was really like a family camp. There was a heard of 6 Blesbok that lived on the property, which is quite big, as well as lots of birds, a huge Boerbull, some ducks and geese and rabbits and cats. A bit like a family farm. Beautiful sunrises as well. Good braais and lekker kuier place.
We did several battlefields over the next 2 days. One day on our own to the Blood river site, where there is a laager built in exactly the way it was in the original battle. Very impressive. That is the whole Piet Retief story where they Boers made the Covenant to keep 16 December as a Sunday, if God granted them the victory over the Zulus. It is a powerful bit of history of South Africa and many present day Afrikaners had people fighting in those wars. We also visited the Zulu memorial site where we were mr. Tsabalala, who gave us some input on the Zulu side of the story.
The following day was spent in the company of a well versed military historian and Battlefied expert, Johan Hamman, who took us to Isandilwhani and Rorke's drift. The first where many British soldiers were killed by the Zulu Impis through a whole series of miscommunication and the second where the Brits fought a brave war with 35 men against hundreds of Zulus and drove them off. It is indeed a story of great bravery and many British soldiers were awarded the VC for their contribution in this particular battle.
I think we were all a bit "Battlefield weary" after this day. Nothing that a few glasses of wine and a Chicken potjie could not rectify. We had a lovely last evening together, with all the "thanks" and "good Byes" etc.
Now only the journey back to Johannesberg!!!