Woke up to beautiful scenery over the Drakensburg. We lost another player today as Rob returned to Uhmlanga with concussion from yesterday's game.
Today we are off to the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rourkes Drift which is a 2 hour trek to Dundee first to pick up our guide and then a further 40 minutes from there. The countryside was again full of nothingness. Each town seems to be at least an hour apart and in between are lots and lots of fields and mountains. There are the occasional shanty towns of 20 to 50 houses each with a school in, but nothing much else. There are always people walking on the streets, but where to and where from is not immediately apparent.
The battle as Isandlwana was depicted in the film 'Zulu Dawn' and was the precursor to Rourke's Drift where Michael Caine performed his heroics in the film 'Zulu'. Islandlwana lasted just 55 minutes in which time the British camp of 1357 men was massacred. By being there and surveying the scene you get a real sense of the mistakes that were made and the thought of 20,000 zulus coming over the ridge in front must have been truly terrifying. The British bodies were butchered due to the zulu traditions of releasing the bodies spirits and some parts were taken as trophies. It was 4 months before the Brits could return to bury what was left of there dead. No Brits managed to escape after the first 5 minutes of the battle and the few who left went to Rourkes Drift to raise the alarm.
From being here you get the impression that Isandlwana was a more significant battle than Rourkes Drift, but was swept under the carpet due to inept tactics and a string of high level mistakes. There is no doubt it was a total disaster for the British.
As not all the Zulu's could get on the battlefield an unknown number (between 500 and 5000) made the 14km trek to Rourkes Drift. This was against the Zulu Kings orders as it was in Natal and not Zulu land. The first Zulu attack at Rourkes Drift came at 4 pm and what proceeded was a 12 hour defence in which only 17 British were killed, but most of the rest were injured. Rourkes Drift became the battle in which the most VC's were awarded. This is significant to our tour as Surgeon Major Reynolds of the RAMC was one of those to be decorated.
Rourkes Drift is a classic defensive position, but you have to question if it was the big battle that it was made out to be to the British public and as depicted in the film. There is no doubt that there were many great acts of bravery and it was a British victory, but we have to question why the Zulu's came into Natal to attack.
In all it was a fascinating day in which I got a real sense of history. The guide was superb and it wouldn't have been the same without him. We again spent the night in Inkosana Lodge.
