Blood River Bronze Wagon Laager

The site of the battle where the Voortrekkers destroyed King Dingane’s Zulu army on 16th December 1838 where 3,000 Zulus were killed by gunfire whilst 3 Voortrekkers were injured by Zulu spears. The descendants of the Dutch immigrants who carried out the slaughter still celebrate the date every year and give thanks to god  for their victory. The Blood River Heritage Museum made much of how miraculous the victory had been whilst the Zulu Ncome museum made more of how there were faults on both sides and the real issue was how we prevent them from being repeated.

We had a lot to think about as we made our way back to Battlefields Country Lodge where we had spent the previous two nights, but not much time to do it as we had spent more time at the Battlefield than we had anticipated. Bob’s clean underwear had arrived courtesy of British Airway’s courier so we were free to set off towards the Drakensberg Mountains and the next stage of our trip. Our late lunch metamorphosed in to our dinner in Ladysmith at 7pm and we allowed ourselves wine, crisps and chocolate for supper when we arrived at the River Crossing B & B, our home for the next two nights.