Life is a Battlefield

American battlefields at ...

I knew the minute we drove through the historic KwaZulu-Natal battlefields on our way back from skiing in the Drakensbergs that Vince would insist we return to the battlefields at some point for a proper visit.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 

Vince is a sucker for US Presidential Libraries and any museum that showcases science and technology. And the same goes for battlefield sites. His ears perk up when discussing a travel itinerary that incorporates any or preferably all of the above.

But as much as I love history, I die a little inside every time we visit battlefield sites. Snore. You would think living for years with the combined testosterone of a husband and two sons - and especially with one of them a United States Marine - that I would either be dead or used to it by now, but I am neither.

However, we did have about a week to travel before our son Alex arrives for Christmas and we embark on our 10 day Christmas holiday. We wanted to do something other than the things we have planned for the itinerary with Alex. Safari, the Garden Route, the Klein Karoo, Cape Town and environs.

I proposed the archaeological World Heritage site of Mapungubwe. Vince put forth the KZN Battlefield tour, Durban and Umhlanga Rocks. In the end, the battle was a draw. Vince's itinerary before Alex arrives and mine right after he leaves to go back to the US. Truce and reconciliation. That's what it's all about, heh?

Besides, spending Reconciliation Day in the same place the holiday actually commemorates seemed appropriate. We stayed at the very central Battlefields Country Lodge in Dundee. Cute thatched rondavels, a swimming pool, a thatched wedding chapel, and the buffet dinners at their Cafe Tagati are pretty good. Make a note, when you are out in the country with independent restaurants scarce if available at all, your lodge is also your dining room. Bring your own wine.

We visited the Talana Museum in Dundee to get an overview of the various sites and go through the museum's interesting displays. Talana is a battlefield site itself when on October 20, 1899 the Boers "convinced" the British to retreat to nearby Ladysmith.

We found out that Dundee was nicknamed "Coalopolis" during its heyday as a British settlement when it "employed" thousands of Indians as indentured servants. There is a monument to Gandhi on site and a Satyagraha Center.

Vince in front of the bronze laager circle

We picked up a map of the local battlefield sites and set out. Islandlwana, Rorke's Drift (forever immortalized in the Michael Caine film Zulu,) and the big daddy of them all, Blood River.

The cliffnotes: Andries Pretorius, 450 kommandos, the Vow, the laager circle, 6000 Zulu warriors, the Ncome River turns red with the blood of 3000 dead Zulu warriors, victory for the Voortrekkers. Let's go build that church.

And then my ears literally perked up too. We heard quite an uproar coming from the Ncome Center next door to the Battle of Blood River battlefield site. And after we crossed the Blood River to get there, we found that there was a dance competition going on with tribal dancing! And tribal music! And tribal singing!



 


I bought some more beaded jewelry and Vince ordered a huge Zulu shield and bought a Nguni fighting stick.

Reconciliation at Blood River! It still happens.