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:
“The poet sings how the blood flows in his veins. He performs his functions, and is so well that he needs such stimulus to sing only as plants put forth leaves and blossoms.... His song is a vital function like breathing, and an integral result like weight.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“At sundown, leaving the river road awhile for shortness, we went by way of Enfield, where we stopped for the night. This, like most of the localities bearing names on this road, was a place to name which, in the midst of the unnamed and unincorporated wilderness, was to make a distinction without a difference, it seemed to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)