Day 04: Battlefields Tour

During April 2021 I did a Battlefield trip on my Motorbike. This was an extension to this trip.

Everyone had engines running by 07h30 and we headed off to the farmhouse.

The Battlefields Route web site provides a lot of useful information when planning such a trip and provides some information about the battles.

Ronel, the tour guide, gave a brief history of the farm and the planned route for the day. Most of the sites are located on Private Farms and are not readily accessible without a tour guide. We visited the following sites:

1. Allemansnek Battlefield

2. General Piet Joubert farm house and memorial grave

3. The Cave where a Boer’ wife and children hid during the Boer War to avoid capture and end up in the concentration camp in Volksrust

4. A Boer Museum

5. The British Memorial site of fallen soldiers

6. The Memorial of the Boer women and children who died in the concentration camps

7. The old railway bridge where the piece treaty was signed

8. The old railway tunnel

Allemansnek Battlefield (Private Property)(S27° 23' 59.0" E29° 41' 31.5")

For detailed information on this battlefield, go to "Alleman's Nek Battlefield" and "AngloBoer War".

This battle took place on 11th June 1900 where the British forces under Gen. Buller finally broke through the Boer forces and entered the Transvaal. The British lost 28 killed and 134 wounded. The Boer lost 4 men.

General Piet Joubert farm house and memorial grave (Private Property)(S27° 20' 52.4" E29° 36' 41.7")

As this was a private guided tour, we had the privilage of going to General Piet Joubert's home where the Guide provided interesting facts regarding the building structure and how the homestead serviced the Boere. The General's health deteriorated after he had fallen from his horse and died on 27 March 1900 at the age of 69. After his death, his wife moved back to their farm in Irene, Centurion, Gauteng.

The memorial was built by a British soldier who had joined the Boere forces. The British soldier died a few years later.

The Cave where a Boer’ wife and children hid during the Boer War to avoid capture and end up in the concentration camp in Volksrust (Private Property)

There are a number of stories where Boer wives and children escaped the British scorched earth policy and concentration camps by hiding in caves in the mountains. The Tour Guide provided interesting history of such events and then took us into the cave.

This cave is at an altitude of 2053m. The people escaping to these caves could not burn wood as this would give away their position. I cannot imagine how one could survive the winter as the cave would be as cold as a freezer.

Ronel, our tour guide, providing the history of this site.

Entrance to the cave

Narrow tunnel to the main cave

Inside the main cave

A Boer Museum (Private Property)

The museum is situated on a private farm and has all sorts of Boer artifacts.

On arrival, we were greated by the Oom & Tanie who invited us to enjoy one shot of their Witblitz. They had prepared a delicious meal for us and as it was already 14h15, we were all feeling rather hungry so this was our first priority. We had the chance to look through the museum and ask the Oom and Tanie questions about some of the artifacts. Some fellow LROC members bought some museum items.

Both the wheat and grape Witblitz' were really nice and smooth. Some members took advantage of the Witblitz offer to help address the hangover from the late evening party the previous evening.

Some LROC members decided to return to camp while others continued with the planned trip.

When I departed, my Garmin Montana 650 GPS battery decided to give up the ghost. Considering the many trips and rough unpaved roads it had travelled on over the past 8 years, I do not blame it.

The British Memorial site of fallen soldiers (S27° 21' 39.7" E29° 52' 21.8")

The site below is situated in Volksrust and is a memorial site for the many British Soldiers who died while fighting the Boere. Go to "Volkrust War Memorials" for more images and information.

The Memorial of the Boer women and children who died in the concentration camps (S27° 22' 04.4" E29° 53' 07.3")

The memorial site is situated in Volksrust City Centre and is in memoery of the many women and children who died in the Concentration Camp located in Volksrust. This concentration camp was one of 6 located throughout South Africa and imprisoned 5,000 Boere women and children of which approximately 25% of the prisoners died, mostly children.

The names and age of the prisoners who died in the Volksrust concentration camp were engraved on both sides of the marble wall below.

Go to "Volksrust Concentration Camp" for more images.

The old railway bridge where the piece treaty was signed (S27° 23' 24.7" E29° 51' 43.2")

The old railway bridge, known as the "Convention Bridge" is situated just south of the town in Smit Street. This marks the spot where President Paul Kruger and Sir Henry Loch signed the Swaziland convention in 1894 in a railway coach, parked exactly in the middle of border bridge

The old railway tunnel (S27° 27' 35.0" E29° 52' 24.5")

The 800m railway tunnel was built by the British in the 1880's to ensure soldiers, food, weapons and ammunition could reach the battlefronts . During the Boer War in 1891, the Boer Commando's blew up 50m on either side of the tunnel to disrupt this flow of goods. The British Soldiers repaired the tunnel in 6 days. The fact that the tunnel is over 100 years old, it is still in a remarkably good condition.

We drove through the tunnel, turned around and returned via the tunnel and headed back to camp. We arrived back at the camp at 18h00.

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