Zululand tour day 12 - Fugitives Drift-Rorkes Drift

A rather sad day today as its ourn final night at isandlwana Lodge and we are facing the long trip home ,but we have the stuff of legends today ,Melville & Coghill , Fugitives Drift and of course Rorkes Drift . I will let the pics do the talking ,but would like to point out how small Rorkes Drift is in terms of the area where the fighting took place and how low and close the cliffs are that the Zulus sniped from . Our trip took in the first combat in the AZW the action at Shiayos Homestead , then the Drift on the baffalo at Rorkes Drift then we moved to fugitives drift and Melville and Coghills Graves then to Jim's Place as the Zulus called Rorkes Drift a very moving day .

The locals are really friendly and fun something i dont think Chelmsford Said

The site of Shiayos homestead

The rocky area where the fighting took place 

Our route over the Drift 

a lot lower than it was in 1879 but still fierce

the area where Chard built his ponts (not a bridge )

Ian jumps onto avanatge point the Shiyane in the background

Fugitives Drift

The beach where the scene in Zulu Dawn was filmed 

The memorial to Melville and Coghill is not far from where they actually died 

The area where private Wassall earned his VC 

here and below are the cairns where Melville and Coghill died

the memeorial 

Their Grave

The museum on the site of the hospital ,pretty much the same other than the roof

The mealiebag defences are now laid out and marked by rocks 

A church is now on the site of the stores ,again stones mark out the defensive wall built from biscuit boxes

The infamous ledge in front of the defences

The monument to the Zulu dead

The Leopard representing the King Cetshwayo on his fallen warriors shields 

The defenders grave yard

Jim Rorkes grave ,he was afariad of having his bones removed ,hence the huge grave stone

The rear of the "store"

The final redoubt ,again a lot smaller than I thought 

A marker at the mass grave of the Zulus

The Museum

Er who put then helmets on ?

original artifacts from the site

The remains of the original walls in the hospital

11 VC winners

The ledge again

The area where the Zulu Snipers were

again closer and smaller than I thought 

another mass grave of the Brave Zulu

looking form what was the orchard /bush area where the Zulus found cover