My Old Fort adventure in Durban

I get to visit Durban once a year during the annual Tourism Indaba but other than stopping in Umhlanga and taking walks on the beachfront, I've never really had an opportunity to explore the city much.  This year I decided to pinch off an hour to explore and discover at least one new place and the choice fell on The Old Fort.  From outside the place didn't look like much but I pressed on and in and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.  When the Dutch arrived in the small settlement of Durban in 1842 the British weren't too impressed to see the Dutch flag flying at the Point.  A armed force of a few hundred were sent to the settlement to sort the Dutch out and was surprised by some stern resistance.  After having to retreat back to the camp Dick King set off on his famous overland horse ride to Grahamstown to fetch reinforcements.

The camp didn't really provide the British with much shelter and during a 24-hour truce called to bury the their dead, the British moved quickly to strengthen it.  Sixty wagons was pulled in a circle around the tented camp and a trench dug around the perimeter.  The excavated soil was used to build up a mount in front with parts of the trench and mount still visible today.  During the siege the Boers shot 651 cannon balls and thousands of bullets at the British.  Many of the cannon balls were dug up and reused after having been fired at them by the Brits.

 

. The battle went on for a whole five weeks until it was finally ended with the arrival of two British ships, a schooner called the Conch, and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Southampton, with reinforcements.  Dick King had succeeded.  The Dutch were sent packing as far back as Cowies Hill and the rebellion was over.  The British was back in full control of Natal.

 

The Old Fort was continuously used as barracks until 1897 and today it's an open air museum of sorts.  The old magazine building has been converted into a chapel while aged military veterans live in rooms that used to be the military barracks.  The gardens that can be found through out the fort complex is littered with historical and interesting items, amongst them a bench made from timber of HMS Southampton, a cannon recovered from the wreck of the Grosvener (1782), and plaques commemorating the heroic journeys of John Ross and Dick King.  The South African Heavy Artillery Memorial can also be found in the fort's gardens.

 

Before I knew it my hour was over and I had to get back to what brought me to Durban in the first place.  Perhaps in the future I will get other opportunities to explore the city and expand my knowledge of the city a little more.

South African Heavy Artillery Memorial in Durban

I wouldn't really call war memorials a specific interest on my side, but I really enjoy discovering historic sites and attractions.  Just about every city and town in South Africa has a war memorial of some sort and Durban is no different.  Usually cities have a number of war related memorials and the first one I found in Durban was the city's South African Heavy Artillery Memorial, one of six around South Africa. 

 

After the end of World War I the Imperial Government presented 6 howitzer guns to the Union of South Africa.  The guns were used by the South African Heavy Artillery Association to honour their fallen Comrades-in-Arms and the six South African Heavy Artillery Memorials were created.  The six memorials can be found in the following places:

• Johannesburg Zoo - Memorial to 71st (Transvaal) Siege Battery
• Clyde N Terry Museum in Kimberley - 72nd (Griqualand West) Siege Battery
• Company Gardens in Cape Town - 73rd (Cape) Siege Battery
• National Museum in Bloemfontein - 74th (Eastern Province) Siege Battery
• Union Buildings in Pretoria - 125th (Transvaal) Siege Battery)
• Warriors' Gate MOTH Shellhole in Old Fort Road, Durban - 75th (Natal) Siege Battery

Uitenhage War Memorial

I'm fascinated by a lot of things so I won't say that war memorials fascinate me, although I find it very interesting how the war memorial in every town - because yes, just every town has some kind of war memorial - looks different.  Ranging from cenotaphs to historic cannons and massive monuments to small simple objects.  This is the war memorial in Uitenhage containing a list of men from the town who died during the two World Wars.

South African Museum

I'm a museum kinda guy.  There is always something new to discover even if you have been to it so many times before.  My favorite museum to go to is the South African Museum in Cape Town.  Its the oldest museum in sub-Saharan Africa and was established in 1825 by Lord Charles Somerset.  It is both a research and educational institution and offers collections of natural history and anthropological objects that document all forms of life - living and extinct - from southern Africa.   Whats also nice about the museum is that fact that its located at the top of the Company Gardens (seen in the photo just behind the Delville Wood Memorial) so a visit can be combined with exploring the whole area.   

One of the most popular and impressive parts of the museum is the whale well with it's life sized whale and whale skeletons. Its combined with the rest of the marine section which also showcases sharks and dolphins. 

Other exhibits range from an extensive collection of mammals and birds, to an excellent collection of material cultural heritage of our indigenous populations going back to their earliest origin.  These include Stone Age tools, some over 120 000 years old, and rock painting.

Chaos Boy's favorite part of the museum was the dinosaur and fossil section with these life sized skeletons being the centre of the exhibit.

Cape Town War Memorial

As you would know I am always on the lookout for something interesting to photograph, doesn't matter if its natural or historical.  As far as historical attractions go you tend to find some kind of war memorial in just about every town and city around South Africa and Cape Town was no different.  In actual fact I found two right next to each other.  At the top of the Company Gardens just below the South African Museum is the Cape Town War Memorial containing the names of the men from the city that has died in the two world wars.  Right behind it is the Delville Wood Memorial which commemorates the World War 1 Battle of Delville Wood in France, in which a predominantly SA force of more than 3 000 soldiers was reduced to 755 survivors by German forces.

Montagu War Memorial

I've said it before and I will say it again and again and again (every time I find another one).  Just about every town has a war memorial.  Click to see those in Knysna and Mossel Bay which I've blogged about before.  Driving around Montagu I was looking for interesting places and stumbled upon the Montagu War Memorial remembering those from the town who fell during the Anglo Boer War, WWI and WWII.  I'm not a war junkie so I don't know what the gun is called, but I liked the fact that the memorial wasn't just a brick or stone pillar.

Also situated in the memorial garden is a Voortrekker monument that was erected in 1938 to commemorate the Great Trek's centenary year.

Angel shining

The Angel Statue in Grahamstown is an Anglo Boer War Memorial depicting an angel standing over a fallen Boer soldier.  Initially I wanted to try and get the sun on the angel's head as a halo, but I had to stand in a busy street to do that.  Looking at the picture afterwards I realised that having the sun on the dying soldier gives it even more of a spiritual meaning as well.