Zululand Tour -day 13 Helpmekaar & Boer War

Our final day and a long journey to the airport , we said our sad farewells ro Roz and the staff at Isandlwana and set off ,as it was along journey Ian and Paul broke it up with afew unadvertised stops ,firstly a quick drop in at Rorkes Drift so a few of the group could get a couple of pics they missed ,then we drove to Helpmekaar , the staging post for Chelmsfords men before they moved to Rorkes Drift and where most of the survivors fom Isandlwana made for .Helpmekaar is Afrikans for "help each other " which refers to the transport "road" the trekkers built to ais each other up and down the hill to Helpmekaar ,today its a small village which is mainly abandoned stores and a large police station ,the military grave yard is behind this but you have to undertake a very rough walk to get to it crossing the police firing range , the graveyard is mainly troops who died of disease during the war .Next we travelled through Boer war country glimpsing Laings Nek before stopping at Majuba hill for a picnic lunch and a brief talk by Ian on the Boer war ,again this site was/is used by white supremacist types for meetings and had some very Nazi like sysmbols on the entrance gate . Finally the airport and home .An amazing experience .

Our Final Night at Isandlwana lodge

some of the amazing staff preparing our farewell meal 

and us doing our bit by eating it 

Our Groupstanding L-R Andy -Richmond-me -ElaineLarry -Jack_Andrew-Tim Kneeling Ian Knight -April-Paul Murais

The graves at Helpmekaar

The derelict buildings make the palce quite spooky

The transport road built by trekkers where Helpmekaar got its name 

The terrrain leading to Helpmekaar