Hogsback

On February 25 we decided to travel to Hogsback. Hogsback was about a 4 hour drive front Port Elizabeth to the North West. It is an area that is in the mountains and has several waterfalls so we were looking both to hiking and doing some sight seeing. We were drawn to Hogsback because J.R.R Tolkien owned property in the area and documents Hogsback as his inspiration to write the Lord of the Rings series.

On our way there we of course ran into trouble with our direction. It would not be an adventure with out losing your way I guess! We followed the GPS to a town named Seymour and entered onto a road that said “Hogsback 30km” (about 20 miles). While we were excited that we were so close we immediately recognized that something was wrong. The sign also said that the road was for 4X4 vehicles only…we were in Toyota Corolla’s definitely not 4X4 vehicles. For some reason we decided to try the road and see if we could get to Hogback. After travelling on this road for about 20 minutes we came to a point where our cars could not handle the terrain so we turned around. We eventually found a highway that took us to Hogsback but it was about an hour and a half detour. Once getting into the small town of Hogsback we found our hostel: Away with the Fairies.

The receptionist gave us a tour of the hostel area before showing us where we would be staying. We had applied for a spot in the 50 person dorm, thus we were expecting a building of some sort that could hold these 50 people. When she told us that we could drive down to the camping area and set up our tents we were taken aback. Supposedly their definition of ‘dorm’ was different than ours. We expressed that we did not have tents or sleeping bags of any sort and they took care of everything for us. We then went on a quick 2 hour hike down into the valley of the mountain. We were sure that some Orcs or trolls would be bombarding us at any time. On the hike we saw an 800 year old tree as well as a few waterfalls.

Waterfall on the First Hike

By the time we got back it was late. We had pizza for dinner and hung around the bar area for a while until it was time to go to bed. Before heading to bed though we all stopped and starred at what was the clearest/starriest night sky we had ever seen. Neither light pollution nor moon light made the night perfect for a little bit of stargazing.
The next morning we slept in and were once again back on the trail. We had signed up for abseiling at 2:30 so we wanted to get a good hike in before heading. We took a longer route to get to the waterfall we’d be abseiling at. While hiking there would occasionally be openings in the trees that would give us great views of the mountains and valleys surrounding us. After hiking for some time we reached our destination: Madonna and Child Falls, the falls/cliff in which we would be abseiling down. We had gotten there early so we rested for a bit until our guides were ready for us.

Half of Madonna and Child Falls

Once at the top of the cliff, the guides gave us a few instructions, and off we went abseiling. The cliff was 35 meters (roughly 115 feet) high, much larger than our first abseiling experience while kloofing. At first the descent down was somewhat nerve raking but once you were going and realized you had control the feeling of going down was quite liberating!

 Each of us took about 15 minutes to go so a little more than 2 hours all together with 9 people. Everyone had their own way at going down the cliff; some took their time, some rushed down it, some even fell. We were all glad we did it and thought it was really fun. After we were done our guides gave us a ride back to hogsback where we had a quick beer with them before heading to out next hostel.

After sitting around until the sunset we were headed to our next hostel. Because we had not realized that the 50 person dorm was a camping area, Away with the Fairies could not accommodate us for two nights, so they set us up with this other hostel: Terra Khaya. After about 10 minutes of driving and once again not being able to find our way around we arrived at Terra Khaya. We expected this hostel to be like any other, cabins for people to stay with a reception house somewhere nearby. This had nothing of the sort. There were two buildings, the kitchen area and a 12 person dorm hut. When we first got there this man by the name of Jeff greeted us and gave us a tour of the place. While on the tour he explained of how Terra Khaya was a completely self-sustaining and eco-friendly hostel; they grew their own vegetables, the fertilizer they used was stored poop that had sat in the outhouse for quite some time, they used eco-friendly soap and shampoo, and their electricity was all solar powered. The ways this place ran was intriguing to say the least. Some of us took a shower at the outdoor shower while others chilled before dinner.

The Shower Area

Dinner came around and it was great. The owner of the hostel used to be a caterer in Cape Town so he cooked us up a great meal: kudu casserole with a garden salad and bread. After dinner we all headed to bed early, the next morning we would be heading out early.
The next morning we woke up quite early from the sunrise shining into our dorm. Some of us took a shower (Luke took two because of it being outdoor with an awesome view of the mountains) and then we all went to eat breakfast. We took a few pictures, said our goodbyes, and were on our way back to PE. Staying at Terra Khaya was a great experience and wouldn’t have happened had we not made the mistake of misunderstanding what dorm met to Away with the Fairies. Another great weekend.

Owner of Terra Khaya