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Zululand Outback Tour

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Zulu Tours

Author: Graham Chennells

Publishing date: 18.09.2004 19:14

Happy boys in Zululand

A Zululand Eco-Adventure Tour. Spend three days on a Zululand on a tour that touches the nerve of Africa.
From The George Hotel and Zululand Backpackers in Eshowe.All meals and accommodation included. Depart every Every Monday 11.30 am until 12.00 am on Wednesday.Other departure dates can be arranged. Cost R1995 pp. Below are some of the things you will see and do and not necessarily in that order.The tours are designed around what is happening in rural Zululand.You will be kept very busy.
Sleepover in Zulu Village for one night. Hotel the next or both in the Hotel.

This Tour is highly recommended by our clients.

Vegetable Farmers

Zululand Outback.Three day two night Tour. Here you are as far as you have ever been from life as you know it. Zulu cultural life as it is today. Scenic beauty that you can only imagine.This Tour will alter slightly to accomodate the events taking place in the community.Three day tour of cultural zulu life, zulu villages, beautifull scenery in a relaxing and fun way. Travel in the area where very few tourists go.

White Spring in Tugela

Day 1

Leave Eshowe through the Dlinza Forest past sugarcane, banana, citrus and timber plantations into rural Zululand. Rolling hills, beehive huts interspersed with more modern dwellings dotted about the countryside. An array of colours shapes and sizes. Magnificent flora and fauna.

Washing Clothes

Zulu women going about their rural chores – collecting wood, planting and reaping crops, doing the washing at the local streams while the children are tending the cattle and playing in the countryside.Children and women drawing water from the local boreholes and carting them to their homes.Goats and cattle grazing and wandering across the roads.Meet the zulu people.

Thothotho Brewery

We drop down into the Amatikulu Valley, drive through the scenic river and then rise steeply up to Samungu. We stop at Nyembe school to meet the teachers and children. Check out Zulu education at grassroots. Your guide will tell you about a local school building project that has provided 2750 classrooms in the Eshowe area.You will also learn and see some of the many projects that our tour company is involved with - Our Zulu Projects.

Lutheran Church

Stop off at a very old Lutheran church for a picnic lunch. Here you will hear about the missionary Norwegian pioneers and the first Zulu Martyr.Then to Thothotho Brewery where Mr Khumalo and his family tell you about Zulu beer and brewing in Zululand.This is the opnly rural brewery on the KZN Brew Route. Mr Khumalo produces the best snuff in Zululand. The name Thothotho is the sensation you have when you take his snuff!!

Storm Brewing in Tugela

We rise to where you look over the most awesome sight in Zululand. A circular bowl of mountains lying six deep towards the horizon. Ntunjambili hangs over as sentinal to this majestic beauty.The glittering and winding Tugela river winds through the valley which is surrounded by Zulu Villlages.
and the traditional way of life.
We look from Siwasamquanque (Cliff of the Vultures) where King Shaka
reputedly sent people over the cliff for disobedience.

Waiting at Bus Stop

We travel Abner Lavunos muzi.Time for a sundowner while food is being prepared and cooked.A Zulu traditional meal with all the food having been grown in the wetlands Vegetarians catered for.This is time to find out about life in the Zululand Outback.

Rural Markets

Day 2

We have a lot to do today. Sunsrise starts another day of adventure into cultural zulu life. We visit a Zulu village (muzi - home) to experience traditional Zulu life and a Sangoma to hear about the traditional fortune telling and healing.

Mbongolwane Mission Complex

Abners daughter is a sangoma and speaks very good english.You can have your fortune told. The spiritual world of the Zulu is discussed and the relationship with ones ancestors and healing amongst the Zulu. Go onto Mbongolwane Mission Station to visit the church, a crèche and a couple of upliftment projects. We acquaint ourselves with mission life, history and tribulation of the early days. We visit the Mbongolwane Wetlands Project the Thubaleth’ elithle Craft group, small traders, soil erosion rehabilitation project, zulu cane growers and the vegetable growing project.

Nesta Nala at Home

We head towards Amadidima then Nesta Nala’s home.She is a world renowned potter who makes the most exquisite pots in the traditional way. No furnace or potters wheel for her!
It was also the place where iron-ore, which was mined in the Tugela River Valley, was taken to be forged into weapons and amulets. According to tradition, iron-ore always had to be smelted in secrecy to avoid the process being bewitched by enemies.Shaka produced his famous short stabbing spear in these parts.
Visit a Zulu shebeen and meet the locals of the Zululand outback.

Green huts in Zululand

We head on to Shu Shu hotsprings springs where we overnight on the Tugela river once more.Weather and time permitting we can wallow in the hot springs and absorb the medicinal properties of the sulphur spring on the island in the Tugela river.

Ntunjambili

Day 3

Head towards Jamesons Drift and Mfongosi valley.Visit the monument to Ndlela ka Sompisi.
Dingane’s prime minister and a person responsible for the continuation of the present royal dynasty. Your guide will tell you about King Shaka and the rise and fall of the Zulu Empire. This is as far as you are going to get way from civilization, as you know it. Enjoy the remote Mfongosi region where earlier explorers set up Gold mines.Huge mining equipment was hauled over the mountains to this area. A race track and four hotels ones stood out here.

Swimming in the Tugela

We move on to the Ntingwe Tea Estate where one of the worlds top five teas are grown. Tour the farm, factory and possibly throw in a line and catch some bass.
Your guide will tell you about the legendary Scotsman Legendary Scotsman John Dunn with 48 Zulu wives who was a hunter trader, explorer, soldier & statesman and the great white chief of Zululand. This man, King Cetheswayo\\\'s friend and confidant, had a great impact on the course of events prior to the invasion of Zululand in 1879

We call in at the Nkandla Hospital where some young International people are doing volunteer work. Check out what a rural hospital is all about.

Nguni Cattle

We then drive through The Nkandla Forest which is a site steeped in Zulu tradition as a hiding place and refuge during unsettled periods in Zulu history The Forest is the last resting place of King Cetswayo, who hid in the forest after being defeated by the pretender to his throne, Zibhebu, in 1883 and who died a few months later in Eshowe under mysterious circumstances. The forest was also integral to the Bambatha Rebellion of 1906.

Ferguson Tractor at speed

Apart from its historical significance it is also one of the most outstanding examples of mistbelt forest in South Africa, mixed with an extremely rare high wet rain forest along the mountain ridges. It’s a great spot for birders and home to the astoundingly rare Karkloof Blue butterfly Orachrysops ariadne.
A suitable hike in the Nkandla Forest. Some birding and nature trails to suit your mood. You can just relax and enjoy the views and peace if that’s what you want. Wonderful photographic opportunities.

We wind our way back to Eshowe and stop off for some information on sugar and timber farming along the way.

Other Tours
Zululand Eco-Tours. From The George Hotel and Zululand Backpackers. Eshowe.

1.Tours to other Zulu Villages. Walters Zulu Village
2.Tours to Traditional Zulu Ceremonies Traditional Zulu Ceremonies.
3.Tours to Sangomas Healings and Initiations. Sangomas Healing and Initiations
4. Walking Township Tours. King Dinizulu Township Tour
5. Three day Zululand Outback Tour. Zululand Outback Tour
6. Zululand Weekend Package. Zululand Weekend Package

Zulu Boy and Donkey

Zululand Eco-Adventures.
Eshowe. Zululand.
KwaZulu Natal. South Africa.
info@eshowe.com
035 4744919..

Your Guides:
Graham Chennells. Walter Cele.

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