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AND NEWCASTLE HARRIERS PRESENT |
THE BATTLEFIELDS ULTRA MARATHON " Are you up for the struggle?" There
are 4 options 10Km, 21Km, 42km, and 50Km |
 The Graves of Capt. MacGregor and his men with Inkwelo and Majuba in the background |
The Battlefields Ultra Marathon starts at the Newcastle Olympic Swimming Pool where you will find the Newcastle Harriers’ Clubhouse. It then proceeds out along Drakensberg Avenue then left into Impala. Along Impala to the junction with the Memel road where it turns to the right and heads out towards Memel. At the turn off to Ingogo and the Schuinshoogte Battlefield the route takes a turn to the right onto the dirt road. This road takes you right through the centre of the Schuinshoogte Battlefield and on down the hill across the Ingogo River before turning back on the same route. The 21.1km runners will turn back at the Brinkshoop Farm turn-off on the Memel road. The Fun run will be held in town |
THE BATTLE
OF SHUINSHOOGTE This action took place during the Transvaal War of Independence (1st Boer War). After his reverse at Lang's Nek Gen. Pomeroy-Colley was obliged to stay in his camp at Mt Prospect to await reinforcements. However his supplies had to come from Newcastle and the Boers were riding around Inkwelo Mountain and disrupting this supply route. To clear the road on the 8th he road out with a "show of force" comprising roughly 400 men of the 3/60th Rifles and 4 guns. At Schuinshoogte they encountered a force of Boers and opened fire on them with the guns expecting them to clear off but they did not and advanced on the British position. More Boer reinforcements were fed into the action and by 14h00 they had the British pinned down on the high ground. Fortunately a tremendous thunderstorm broke out a little after 17h00 and the Boers withdrew leaving the British to retreat back to their camp in the dead of night. In crossing the now swollen Ingogo River 6 men were drowned. |
The
main British Monument on the Battlefield of Schuinshoogte
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Permanent
race numbers are awarded to athletes when they have completed 10 Battlefield
Ultras. |
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