We are delighted to be able to offer a special offer at Isandlwana Lodge in the Zululand Battlefields for this coming May to Sepetember period.
On 22 January 1879 at Isandlwana a 20,000 strong Zulu army, armed only with spears and shields, attacked the heavily armoured but far smaller British Army contingent of 1,774 men. Despite many tales of individual heroics, only a handful of British soldiers escaped alive after a fierce 2 hour battle, and this massacre was the British Army’s worst defeat in Africa.
Later that same day, a force of over 4,000 Zulu warriors attacked the mission sation at nearby Rorke’s Drift, and in a seige and battle that lastest until daybreak on the 23rd January the 139 British Soilders successfully defended the garrison for the loss of 17 British lives…the attacking Zulus lost 350 men in the battle, and by the time they retreated the British were down to their last 900 rounds of aminition from their initial stick of 20,000. The defene of Rorke’s Drift saw more Victoria Crosses awarded than any other single battle in British Military History.
The battle sites themselves are both eerie and haunting places, and both the Zulu and British view the events of that day as a tragedy each side has the highest respect for the bravery of all the men on both sides.
No matter how you think you feel about military history, the KwaZulu-Natal Battlefields are an astonishing and moving experience that are highly recommended to all visitors to South Africa.