Bergville Local Customs

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I must say that I would rather explore a battlefield on my own with a little pre and post reading to guide my efforts. If you read the relevant chapter in Thomas Pakenham’s “The Boer War” and use the self-guided trail map you should be able to make sense of the dry grassy mountain top. I have read in some of the guidebooks that so little remains on the battlefields here in KwaZulu Natal - Majuba, Isandlwana, Spion Kop - just a few graves and a couple memorials. But one has to remember these battles were never large affairs on the scale of the horrors that were to occur a little latter in Europe. The emptiness of the battlefields speak volumes by themselves. Still, to make it easier for the visitor, just like in Europe and at American Civil War sites, experienced guides can be employed to give you more of a sense of what happened, where and why. Some of the guides dress up in military regalia leading to the theatrics of their tour. I imagine that being licensed, most guides are knowledgeable in the sites that they show you - I would still think if you want to go to the expense of hiring a guide you would want to study up on a site before going through. The only other people up on Spion Kop hired a guide to help them understand the battle better and with the little I overheard, they should have come off the site with a much better sense of the battlefield.