175 years ago today on 16th December 1838 the Battle of Blood River was fought between 470 Afrikaner Voortrekkers & many thousands of Zulus in which 3000 Zulus died & less than a handful of the voortrekkers wounded. The nearby river was said to have run red with blood.

Before the battle, the Afrikaaners swore a vow to God that if he bought them victory, they would build a Church & forever honour the date. This was/is known as The Day Of The Vow or The Day Of The Covenant.

The battle site now has a monument to the battle in the form of a number of life sized wagons in laarger & (IIRC) 2 cannons.

This monument is well worth a visit for those who are hunting in the area & I can highly recommend it to you all.

The date is very important to the Afrikaner people so I'll be raising a glass to the health, safety & prosperity of all my Afrikaner friends at 2100 hours tonight.

As an aside, I happen to own a small piece of land that overlooks the monument & if you stand on it & look west at the right time of day, you'll see the monument & the sun setting immediately behind it.

Not bad for an old Rooinek to know that huh!

I will toast to that.

Have a look.

http://www.ourcivilisation.com...op/ransford/map6.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mq-mocehhs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blood_River

My pleasure.

Scriptus thank you for the info. Read it all.

Mike

My Dad's birthday is on the 16th Dec, he seems to think that the "Old" public holiday was for his benefit

Now they've changed it to "reconciliation day"
And buried Nelson on the 15th so me thinks a Double holiday is on the cards

Steve:

Thank you for the SA history lesson. I for one never knew this.
Man I like this site more everyday just because of these bits of info everyone shares.

Wish you ALL down there the best,
George

Dave

I deliberately didn't mention the name change as I reckon it's BS.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:

The date is very important to the Afrikaner people so I'll be raising a glass to the health, safety & prosperity of all my Afrikaner friends at 2100 hours tonight.

I will certainly hold my glass high with you...but...I am afraid, in today's world, their efforts were in vain.

I'll raise a toast to their memory of success.


Dutch

Oh yeah, "facta non verba"

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Dave

I deliberately didn't mention the name change as I reckon it's BS.

Steve , it's seems the old man passed months ago in June and they kept him alive!this was so that they could arrange the funeral.

Now there is a strong push to make the 15th a holiday. It was all over the radio today.

These buggers are soooo predictable.

quote:

Originally posted by leopards valley safaris:

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Dave

I deliberately didn't mention the name change as I reckon it's BS.

Steve , it's seems the old man passed months ago in June and they kept him alive!this was so that they could arrange the funeral.

Now there is a strong push to make the 15th a holiday. It was all over the radio today.

These buggers are soooo predictable.

Wonder whether they'll use the same sign language interpreter .....

quote:

Originally posted by leopards valley safaris:

Steve , it's seems the old man passed months ago in June and they kept him alive!this was so that they could arrange the funeral.

Now there is a strong push to make the 15th a holiday. It was all over the radio today.

These buggers are soooo predictable.

Dave,

That certainly was the big rumour and quite believable IMO.

It'd certainly explain the big family visit to the hospital and then the family burial plot and their belief of using the buffalo thorn/Ziziphus Mucronata/burial tree would even have allowed them to conduct their version of a private burial service at the time........ but of course, it'll be one of those mysteries we'll probably never know the whole truth of.

As for the 15th, you blokes will soon have more public holidays than you have working days!

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by leopards valley safaris:

As for the 15th, you blokes will soon have more public holidays than you have working days!

You cannot fault the ANC there, they are working hard at it. Combine the public holidays together with the labour strikes and no-one will be at work.

I have visited the memorial at Blood River and it is most definitely worth seeing. Between the wagons are replicas of the gates made by the boers to keep the Zulu from breaching the Lager. There are also relicas of the lanterns used by the Boers in case of a night attack. Of the many historical sites in South Africa Blood River is one of my favorites. if you are close enough to visit Blood River, then you can make a day of it and see Rorke's Drift, Isandlhwana and the Second Anglo-Boer War Museum at Talana Hill. I highly recommend Penny Farthing Bed and Breakfast. Foy is a great tour guide and host.

Several years ago I visited the Voortrekkers Museum in Pretoria. There is a hole in the top of the great dome. As I recall, on this date the sun is supposed to shine its rays at noon on a Medallion placed in the floor.

The museum is very impressive. I recommend a visit.
Brice

Brice

You mean the Voortrekker Monument.

The Voortekker Monument is very impressive. We will discuss the Battle of Blood River on High Caliber Radio/TV this Friday. I will try to scan in some of my photos so we can run them with the commentary. You can watch/listen at www.highcaliberradio.com, click the arklahoma vision icon. we will be live 1p-3p cst and archived after that.