Ladysmith & Cape Town Redux

I am trying to catch up some of my delinquent posts before I depart and I recall I had last left you in Africa on my way from Bloemfontein to Ladysmith. After a few days looking at Boer War battlefields I was off to the frontiers of Zulu Land to see Rorke's Drift and Isandhlwana, famous from the 1879 battles and the two movies made of them. Arriving in Ladysmith after a 200km drive from Durban airport I checked in to the Buller's Rest Lodge, a beautiful place on one of Ladysmith's many hills. One nice feature of the lodge was the ability to have communal home style dinners with the other guests. My first night at the large dining room table was a Godsend for a French couple who had been incommunicado until my interpreter services were available. He was a judge and she a wildlife photographer, so I am now covered if I get arrested in Lyon, or need a shot of a wildebeest.

I spent the next day being guided around the Zulu battlefields by Pat Rundgren, a transplanted Zimbabwean, author, and re-enactor who was the perfect person to take me round the sites. Isandhlwana is very impressive and just like you would imagine it, though once the battle is explained in detail some interesting aspects emerge. Rorke's Drift is very different from the movie "Zulu" (of Michael Caine and Stanley Baker fame). It is a much smaller site than you think from seeing the movie and the statistics of the battle challenge some assumptions. First off, the 24thFoot was not a Welsh Regiment until the 1880's so all this "Jones 242" and singing "men of Harlech" biz in the movie was a bit of a myth.

The next day I went round the Boer War battlefields of the region which include Colenso (where two gunners earned VCs) and Ellandsgate as well as the famous siege of Ladysmith. A great museum recreates the lines around the town and the feel of the siege. I also set out on a 10 hour round trip drive to find Leliefontein - a famous (to some) Canadian battlefield where three VCs were earned. It was a very small battle and very difficult to find, particularly with my only map being a sketch in a book. I think I got close.

My last day on the battlefields was spent at Spion Kop - famous to Liverpool supporters as the name of the stands at their football grounds. A brilliantly evocative battlefield made more poignant by the use of the British trenches to bury the many dead. My camera died on my first visit so I risked missing my flight in Durban to get more shots - in better weather as it turned out.

My trip to the region ended and I headed back to Cape Town for a couple more days of relaxing. I checked into a very nice downtown hotel and took in some sights I had missed on my first visit two weeks before. Too soon it was back on the aircraft for the long flight through Jo'burg, London and Frankfurt before heading back to Kandahar.

Bloemfontein Part 2

After exploring Bloem the next thing I had to do was start my serious battlefield touring. I had come to Bloemfontein because it seemed central to the battles leading to Paardeberg, but as I spent many hours driving between Bloem and Kimberly, the latter town would be a better base for touring. My first day on the battlefields would be to look at British battles in early attempts to relieve Kimberly - which was besieged by the Boers. The early battles were almost all disasters for the Brits - three defeats in seven days earning the moniker "Black Week." One of those Black Week battles was Magersfontein. It is a large hill that blocks the approaches to Kimberly and the British attempted to seize it after forcing a crossing of the Modder River. A monument on the top of the hill is to the dead of the Highland Brigade and its commander General Wauchope, who died leading it. Near to the battlefield is a large Burghers Memorial that united many smaller cemeteries into one larger plot. It is an impressive sight designed to look like a cross when viewed from the air. In the 1960's the apartheid government of South Africa built many monuments to the Boer war dead.

After touring the two battlefields, and driving down some very muddy roads, I returned to Kimberly. The besieged British were led by Cecil Rhodes of scholarship and -esia fame. His HQ is now a museum that I toured before turning to the other reason to visit Kimberly - diamonds. The mines there are now underground but the original "Big Hole" is still there, and has been turned into a museum. The hole is the largest hand dug one in the world; the walk out along the gantry to view it is very vertigo-y. I did not buy any diamonds while there, sorry to disappoint my legions of female readers. But did buy a golf shirt.

My last day in Bloem was spent looking at the the Canadian battlefield at Paardeberg. I had timed my visit so as to be there on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday - the Royal Canadian Regiment's first battle in South Africa. Their charge of the Boer firing line was repulsed with many casualties. Once again there was a Burgher memorial, but this time there was also a Canadian cemetery. The headstones, funded by the Imperial Order, Daughters of the Empire, are elegant and very Canadian. The smaller cemeteries that used to dot the battlefield have been concentrated at one site. It is not as well maintained as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites of the First and Second World Wars, but it is cared for. The South African government maintains the cemeteries, i am not sure if Canada contributes anything.

My last night in Bloem was spent in a very nice Italian restaurant where I once again marvelled at how inexpensive it is in South Africa. Tomorrow I set out for Ladysmith.