After a glorious eight nights in Clarens, we move ever closer to Durban, and our flight home. This time we are staying at Tugela River Lodge . We booked three nights here as the main reason for our visit is because we wanted to visit the Spionkop Battle field, one of the many battle sites in the area during the Anglo Boer wars. Our accommodation was in a lovely location, right on the rivers edge, it was a great location for watching bird life. There were some nice walks from the lodge, which our host Kyle told us about, but alas we could not do any, as the area has had so much rain of late that most were inaccessible, because of this. The lodge also has a wildlife reserve which we wanted to do, but because it was self drive and on an unmade road we decided against it as the track would have been extremely muddy and we did not want to risk getting bogged down
It was not all doom and gloom as in the evening we did witness some spectacular lightning storms off in the distance, from the comfort of our spacious balcony.
We booked our battle field tour with a guide who works out of Three Tree Hill. The lodge is situated in an idyllic location with views of the hill where the battle took place, and the beautiful surrounding countryside. Sitting there with a coffee before our tour, it was hard to imagine the carnage and loss of life that went on in such a lovely location. We both agreed that it would have been lovely to stay at the the lodge, but when we looked at the price per night it was well out of our price range. But I would definitely recommend taking the battle field tour from here. As our guide Pierre was excellent and very knowledgeable about South Africa’s military history.
Our morning started with Pierre explaining the different territories in South Africa which were occupied by various countries. The British, Dutch, and the Germans, explaining the infighting between the different nations for control. After our short talk in the stunning lodge library. We then were driven to the site for the start of our tour. At the entrance gate I could not help noticing that behind the girl at the desk was a Liverpool football Club scarf and pennant, I asked Pierre why they were there and he explained that at the football club, the stand in which die hard clubs supporters congregate is called the Kop, which I knew. It was named the Kop in 1900 in memory of the 300 men who died in the battle, many of which were from Liverpool. There is a really good article on Wikipedia detailing the events of the war. Click Here. Whilst walking around the site and looking at the different memorials dedicated to the different regiments involved, and the cairns marking the mass graves. I felt quite sad,because we should not have wars. In my opinion it’s only the soldiers involved in the fighting that are the ones that suffer. It isn’t the governments or powers to be, or the high ranking officers that get killed or maimed, it’s the soldiers that are sent to fight their cause that are the victims. The crazy thing is, in the Spionkop battle after both sides finished fighting, we learnt from Pierre that both sides helped one another bury their dead and care for the wounded. Madness.
A couple of interesting facts about the Spionkop battle was that, Sir Winston Churchill was there as a war correspondent. He was later captured by the Boers “more on that in my next post“. Also, Mahatma Gandhi was also there as a stretcher bearer in the Indian Ambulance Corps, which he organised and was decorated for it.
The tour costs £143 for two people. It included a light breakfast, coffee and a muffin. Hot and cold drinks on the tour and lunch when we returned. All in all very good value in my opinion.
My Passion for Travel 