Hogsback

  Hogsback, South Africa
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Hello Everyone,

What the heck is Hogsback you say? We had been hearing about this place for weeks. Other travellers highly recommended it. This is an area inland from the coast. It was about a 3 hour drive from the last town we were at of Cintsa. It is an enchanting area of forests and mountains. It got its name because of 3 barren looking mountains that have a ridge along the top. They really do look like the backs of the wild hogs in the area. They are respectively called Hogsback 1, 2 and 3.

This area is where the famous J.R. Tolkein was born. The community proudly boasts that this is where he got his inspiration for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. He apparently moved away from the area when he was five, so I don't know how true this is. Perhaps he has family here and and came back to visit. The scenary certainly does look like it could have inspired the writing of the books.

The area has a certain magic to it. The scenery is beautiful. Many areas have names from the stories, like Middle Earth, the Shire, etc. The backpackers we stayed in, which again we heard so many good reviews about is called Away With the Fairies. It suits the name. It is in a nice setting with many places to sit and enjoy the tranquility of the place. There are two animals we looked forward to seeing during our stay here. One is the rare Samango monkey. It visits in the nearby trees on a daily basis. The even rarer Cape Parrot frequents almost daily as well. Usually between 6 and 8pm. There are only about 300 of them in exsistince. We also saw many of the beautiful Laurie birds, they have bright green and blue colours and when they fly the underside of their wings are brilliant red.

The backpackers main bar, eating area as well as the rooms in the cabins are all artistically decorated in fairies, gnomes and other mystical creatures. The other great thing about this places is the food. They have a chef who was trained in Europe and no word of a lie serves 5 star food at this place. You wouldn't believe the primitive conditions and kitchen he makes it in. We had the most delicious vegetarian meal. Butternut squash stuffed with peppers and feta, other veggies and a savoury sauce. We had unfortunately just stocked up with our own groceries prior to coming here, otherwise we would have tried many more meals.



There are many walking trails and hikes right from the backpacker grounds, great if you have arrived without a car. There are small walks from half an hour to 7 hour hikes up one of the hogsback mountains. We didn't have quite enough energy the first day we arrived. The other days the mist had set in covering everything in sight so we didn't get many walks in. A few people left early one day before the mist set in to go to the top of hogsback 1, everyone was getting worried about them. They finally arrived back, quite a bit later than they should have, but safe. They took the 3 resident dogs with them on the hike. It was a good thing because they did get lost at one point, but one of the dogs sat at a trail head showing them which way to go. On the way back we were told one of the dogs attacked and killed one of the small Samango monkies and the little fiesty jack russell made a good time of eating him, ughhhhh, poor monkey!

We had some of the best social evenings at this place. We met many interesting people and shared travel stories with everyone. We would also highly recommend this place.

We went to a place here called the Eco-Shrine. A lady has built basically a Gaelic version of Stone Henge on her property. It has many large cement structures all alined in a pattern around a central pond filled with koi and lily pads. The view from her property looks out into a valley. She is an artist and the cement structures have her oil paintings hanging in them. The artwork is really unique and quite beautiful. It is very spiritual and depicts the earth and nature. When the mist rolls in from the valley the whole place has a very mystical feeling to it.



There was one thing that was becoming a bit annoying by the end of our stay here. There were locals running after you in your car or while you were walking down the dirt roads. They have small mud hogs they are trying to sell you. You can buy one in a couple of shops here that are fired and glazed. The ones the guys on the street have are not fired. If they get the slightest bit wet you will have a hell of a mess on your hands. They run frantically after you, holding their hands up in the air shaking the hogs at you and yelling something in Xhosa, so we have no idea what they are saying.

See you at the town of Addo.