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A good friend, Mike (LROC member) joined me for the Majuba trip. Mike drives a 110 Defender that is kitted out for 4x4 expeditions. Mike was towing one of the trailers he built. He builds specialised camping trailers designed for on-road and 4x4 off road capabilities. Refer to his business site, Afri Trak, for great information and travel tips.
We departed from Pretoria at 06h030 on 2021-08-05 and took the back roads via Delmas, Leandra and Standerton to Volksrust. The air pollution along the route was seriously bad due to the coal powered power stations, other industry and residential use of coal to cook and keep warm. You could taste the pollution in the air. By the time we reached Volksrust, the air quality was much better.
Majuba is situated south of Volksrust along the N11. We arrived at 10h30
During my previous visit to Majuba on my Motorbike Battlefield tour in April 2021, the site was closed and you can only access this by prior appointment.
Theuns, the manager, met us at the entrance gate of the Majuba site and unlocked the Chalet. The accommodation consists of the supervisor quarters in the youth camp dormitory.
At 11h00 we were ready to take on the Majuba Mountain – As any good cowboy does, we drove my Defender to the highest point before starting the hike.
The hike length is approximately 2,9km and ascends approximately 300m to an altitude of 2106m. We carried water and lunch along to enjoy at the top. The path is very visible, however some of the markings of the battle were hidden by the tall grass. Mike was very good at spotting some of them.
There are 3 sections that are very steep and we had to stop a number of times to catch our breath and enjoy the wonderful view. When we reached the summit, we enjoyed a break had a sandwich, nartjie and banana for lunch before visiting the memorial sites at the top.
We stood in awe of the Boere who had to climb the mountain with their 3kg rifles and ammunition while the British military fired down on them. It took a Boer about 3 min to load and fire each shot so the risk to the Boere was high.
By the end of the 2,5hr battle, the Boere defeated the British and suffered 1 death and 5 wounded of the 450 who attacked the hill while the British deaths, wounded and captured were 285 of the total 427 soldiers and officers. Refer to the British Battle of Majuba for more information.
Amajuba Re-union memorial erected in 1935 by veterans and public
Here, on 27 February 1881, some 450 Boer fighters fought a battle against 405 British soldiers, who were located on the mountain top. The hill was not considered to be scalable by the Boers. The British were so confident they did not even dig in. A huge battle ensued and a total of 285 British were killed, captured or wounded. The battle is considered to have been one of the "most humiliating" defeats suffered by the British in their military history and was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War. The graves and memorial stones are all well preserved and can be viewed after about a 400M steep ascent on foot.
The climb to the top is steep
Grave site of fallen British Soldiers
Sheep and goats roam around the accommodation and are very friendly and paid us a visit.
Theuns provided a huge bag of charcoal so that we could braai our dinner. When we started braaing a friendly donkey visited and kept on returning for some human attention.
As we only used a small amount of charcoal, we took the balance to our next destination.
Boer Festival memorial of the Great Trek and various battles
Mike and the friendly goat
Our new found friend who braaied with us
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