Today we left Ithala and headed for our final hotel Isandlwana Lodge ,on route we visited the early Boer v Zulu battle site that became known as Blood River and then the lonely grave of the Prince Imperial .
Blood River
Andries Pretoriuos led less than 500 Voertrekkers against over 10,000 to 20,000 Zulus on the banks of the Ncombe River in 1838.Earlier the Zulu Chief Dingane had killed a Boer Piet Retrief and his men after they had shown disrespect to the Zulu ,the Boers view was Retrief was murdered ,either way more bloodshed followed which led to the battle .Pretoriuos put his wagons into a lager and situated 2 or 3 ships guns on makeshift carriages , The Zulus encircled the camp and eventually attacked the Boer tactics of staying in and behind the wagons ,each wagon connected to the next by a makeshift fence and using buckshot to maximise casualties ,made the Zulus unabale to get into hand to hand combat withdraw ,leaving at least 3000 dead behind ,the Boers had 3 wounded. The Boers claimed God had intervened and built a small memorial to the fact ,the site became a place of great importance to the boers and still today white supremacist groups still use it for meetings .In 1971 a memorial consisting of 64 ox wagons built in bronze was put on the site and a small museum was opened ,the original monument of a wagon in granite is outside the entrance. The Zulu eastern side of the River now also contains a monument and visitors centre . Ian took us to the Zulu side first as we were to have lunch at the Boer museum but this caused bit of an issue with the museum curators as we had visited the wrong side first we should have looked at the True story on the Boer side before seeing the Zulu version ,after this we made pretty unwelcome .
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| Zulus still live in the area of the battle |
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| The monument to the boers in the distance ,this is possibly the sight seen by the zulus on the dy of the battle |
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| The Ncombe Zulu Museum |
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| The line of Kings from Shaka to today |
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| The entrance to the Bridge over the Ncombe/Blood River connecting Zulu and Boer |
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| The Blood River named due to the amount of dead in and around it after the battle |
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| my good lady on the Bridge |
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| The Boer memorial close up |
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| The spot of teh Boer vow to god where he grnted them victory . |
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| The original monument |
The Prince Imperial
Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte The Prince Imperial was in exile in Britian and was eager to prove his military genius as his great uncle had done ,but was unable to do so .His Mother Empress Eugenie intervened and begged the Queen to get him some type of position with the British in Zululand . He was given an unnoficial place on the staff and wearing a Royal Artillery uniform , which he was allowed to wear as he had attended the Royal Military academy and served as cadet with the Royal Artillery , he soon became known for trying to take charge when he was out in the field and was kept in camp as punishment .On the 1st of June however he was allowed to accompany a patrol , Lord Chelmsford insisted that a strong escort accompanied the Prince but Napoleon was eager to set off and left with out the escort and he soon took command of the little scouting party from the hands of Lieutenant Carey .Around noon the Prince ordered stop at an abandoned zulu homestead and no sentries were posted , but a zulu scout did inform them hostile Zulus were nearby . After a rest the troop started to mount up when suddenly a group of Zulus attacked .The Pince was thrown from his startled horse ,he grabbeed as his saddle but could only grab his saddle holster which ripped free ,he fell to the ground and the horse stamped on his right hand .Louis put up a fight but was soon overcome and assagied to death ,a number of wounds were made but the killing stroke was probably one which burst his left eye and entered his brain .carey and the remainder of the patrol tried to get away ,the zulu scout was killed again putting up afight and 2 troopers Able and Rogers were also killed .Carey was originally charged with leaving the Prince but public opinion got this changed and he returned to duty .
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| The spot where the Prince died and the site of his original grave . |
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| The curator getting us to sign in |
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| Able and Rogers final resting place |
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| The Donga where the Zulu scout is buried |
Now we headed for our final hotel of the tour the amazing Isandlwana Lodge .
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| Our first sight of the mountain at dusk |
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| the view from our room |
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| More wildlife the Duzzies were everywhere |
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| a welcoming drink |
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| sunset at Isandlwana in the morning the highlight of the tour begins |
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| our room was the Cetshwayo suite the biggest in the hotel with a panaorma view |
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