The creak of wagon wheels, the bellow of oxen, the odd curse from a trooper. Men sometimes hot and sweaty under the blazing African sun, or shivering in unexpectedly heavy downpours... it was easy to imagine such scenes.
Especially as we were in the company of specialist battlefields guide Nicki von der Heyde, who sketched vivid accounts of the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, as well as the military campaign as the British - spoiling for war - moved troops into the heart of Zululand.
We were walking along a hiking trail blazed by Nicki (who operates under Campaign Trails and recently won this year's coveted Tourism KZN Tour Operator of the Year Award), following the original route taken by the British and colonial forces as they moved into place in the run-up to the Battle of Isandlwana.
Further fleshing out the military ghosts were Charles Aikenhead, a former officer in the Irish Guards, and local Amafa Heritage officer Petros Sibisi.
We could have done the route on horseback, but chose instead to walk.
Many people have heard of the Fugitives' Trail - that taken by the tiny party of British who survived the Battle of Isandlwana and tried to flee across the Buffalo River back into Natal and to the fort at Helpmekaar. Lost in the blaze of bad publicity, as Britain reeled under newspaper headlines telling of the rout at Isandlwana, was another equally famous route: the one taken by British trooper Smith-Dorien, who raced off on horseback in the early hours of the morning carrying a message from Lord Chelmsford to Col Anthony Durnford to come up in support prior to the battle.
He was following the same route as that taken by the British as they marched into what they thought would be an easy victory; the same one we were following.
Our history lesson began to unfold as we left Pietermaritzburg and travelled via Greytown, Keates Drift, Tugela Ferry and Pomeroy en route to Rorke's Drift.
As we breasted a hill and admired yet another wonderful, sweeping vista, Nicki suggested that we place ourselves in the positions of those weary Victorian soldiers.
"Can you imagine how they felt as they saw another steep incline down which they had to get the wagons, followed by another steep climb up the other side? Remember, it had also been an inordinately wet summer, so the wagons would have got bogged down, their clothes would have been wet, they would have been miserable and probably longing for home. But they would also have been thinking of doing their duty, of the glory of victory," she said, reminding us how in that era the concepts of honour were quite different from modern-day thinking.
As we walked the trail, Charles pointed out the flat rocks laid by the engineers as they prepared a track for the wagons. Petros talked about a tribe which hid in caves in the nearby hills. Just a couple of days before the Battle of Isandlwana, the British had rooted them out and defeated them, and had no doubt been fired up by this easy victory.
Grasslands, thorn trees, sunflowers in glorious array against the blue skies; the two rocky outcrops of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift on the horizon; crossing the lovely, sandy Batshe River (which flows into the Buffalo River) - all made their imprint on our imaginations as we walked.
Back on the Rorke's Drift side of the Buffalo River we settled down to a picnic lunch under the trees. Again Nicki evoked a scene: "Where we are sitting the troops would probably have played football, but suffering from enteric fever and dysentery as they camped beside the river, they would no doubt have been delighted when the order came to cross into Zululand," she said.
However, for most of those men it all ended on a lonely battlefield, beneath a stark, looming mountain, far from home.