Full moon tour = full of surprises

People who have lived all their lives in Dundee were left breathless on Friday evening when they took in the view of the town and Talana battlefield from Lennox hill on the Ingudlane Lodge game reserve.

This was a ‘dry-run’ for full moon tours of Talana scheduled for next year. Led by guides, Pat Rundgren and Pam McFadden, it was a hardy bunch who braved the unseasonal cold on top of the hill.

Sadly, the cloud hid the full moon from view.

Buck are plentiful even though the drought has taken its toll on the vegetation. After Pat gave a run-down of how the Boers shelled the British camp from their aerial positions around the town in 1899, it was time to head back to the Museum.

Pam says there are ghosts at Talana after dark and you can well believe her…. there is a different sort of atmosphere once the sun has gone… and this lends itself to mystery and surprise.

The recently opened Anglo Boer war exhibition is an eye-opener. Do you know about Mara – the Indian victim of war – adopted by the De Jager’s at only four weeks old?

Or Roland Schikkerling who joined the war aged 19? Or what about Helena Herbst Wagner? Who was she?

Later, Pam – playing the role of Ann Smith in the sometimes eerie Smith Cottage, told visitors how Ann Smith and her husband left Scotland to set up home in South Africa and establish Dundee.

If the tours leave hardened Dundonians impressed, visitors are bound to be begging for more. The next full moon tour is on February 20.