KwaZulu-Natal Tour - Days 3 and 4

Former hospital site where the British held off the Zulus in the Battle of Rorke's Drift

Vast valleys of Northern Zululand

Impressive landscapes

KwaZulu-Natal Tour - Days 3 and 4

Sept 21 and 22, 2016

Got started at 7:30 this morning. Drove out of Hluhluwe Game Park into Imfolozi Game Park. This park has mostly wilderness areas. You can visit on a 4 day hike with a guide and donkeys to carry your supplies and food.  It took us longer to get through than we planned as we saw African cape buffalo, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, impalas, nyalas, and even a turtle. What an amazing array of animals, and what a way to see them - in their own environment rather than in a zoo!

 After that it was a full days' drive to Dundee, a town in the coal mining area. In this northern part of the province, many of the major battles between the British, the Zulus, and the Boers for control of SA in the 19th century took place. We stayed in the Royal Country Inn which is filled with war and history memorabilia. The area is called "Battlefields". The scenery reminded us of western Alberta, with dry, rolling hills. The locals in their shacks and shanty towns have only a subsistence living, doing migrant farm work or working in the mines. Coal and other minerals are the main products.

Thursday morning we headed out to one of the battle sites, Rorke's Drift. In the early 1800's, King Shaka, a great Zulu warrior, conquered many of the neighbouring tribes to create a very large powerful nation. They were better trained warriors than many other African tribes. They surprised both the Boers and the British troops with defeats with much loss of life. The British would have been content to have a port at the Cape until diamonds were discovered. Then they wanted more control. The battle at Rorke's Drift was in 1879. 100 British troops held off 4000 Zulus. The 11 survivors received Victorian Crosses. There is now a museum there. Greg, our guide, knows a wealth of information about all this history. The movie, Zulu, is about this particular battle. The Boer War, in 1899, was essentially for control of newly discovered gold. If interested, there has been a lot written about this period.

We spent the afternoon driving further towards the Drakensberg Mountains. We stayed at a beautiful resort in the "midlands", called Rawdons. The temperature kept dropping and the fog was rolling in. It was 13C when we arrived. There was a microbrewery on site, so we enjoyed trying their samples. The only one not drinkable for me was "cappuccino" flavoured beer. With more moisture, this area was favoured by colonists for agriculture and cattle. It seems very British and much more prosperous.