I always feel a little melancholy on this day in January (see last year, here), and it's not just the winter blues it's because on this day way back in 1879, the two most famous battles of the Anglo-Zulu War occurred, the Zulu victory at iSandlwana and the successful British defence at Rorke's Drift, (made famous of course in the 1964 movie, ZULU).
My own interest in the period of course stems from that movie and has been a passion of mine ever since developing into books, my own comic book efforts and a couple of battlefield and wider Zululand adventure trips.
All this interest, passion and enthusiasm for the period is tinged with sadness on the anniversaries as so many men, both British and Zulu lost their lives and in the course of the subsequent short but decisive war, the Zulu Kingdom and way of life was destroyed. So I will spare a thought today for those brave souls from 137 years ago and share a few sombre photos from my 2014 trip to these famous sites.
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