Blood River, also known as Ncome, (Afrikaans: Bloedrivier) is situated in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This river has its sources in the hills SE of Utrecht; leaving the highlands it is joined by two important tributaries that originate in the Schurveberg, after which it flows meandering through a sandy plain. The Blood River is a tributary of the Buffalo River, itself a tributary of the Tugela River which it joins from the north-east.
This river is so named after the Battle of Blood River in which Zulu king Dingaan was defeated by Andries Pretorius' troops in 1838.
The Blood River Vlei, located about 20 km to the south-west of Vryheid, is one of the biggest inland wetlands in South Africa, and the wintering place of migratory birds such as ducks and geese.
Famous quotes containing the words blood and/or river:
“But since Thy loud-tongu’d Blood demands Supplies,
More from BriareusHands, than Argus Eyes,
I’ll tune Thy Elegies to Trumpet-sounds,
And write Thy Epitaph in Blood and Wounds!”
—James Graham Marquess of Montrose (1612–1650)
“It is from quiet places like this all over the world that the forces accumulate which presently will overbear any attempt to accomplish evil on a large scale. Like the rivulets gathering into the river, and the river into the seas, there come from communities like this streams that fertilize the consciences of men, and it is the conscience of the world that we are trying to place upon the throne which others would usurp.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)