This weekend I headed to the bizarre village of Hogsback, up in the Amatola mountain range about 150km out of East London. The area is described in the guidebooks as "pure fantasy" and has several place names derived from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. So there's Hobbiton-on-Hogsback and Bag End among others. Tolkien was apparently born in Bloemfontein (also in South Africa) and visited Hogsback when he was a child in the early 1900s. The village itself got its name from the three mountains which overlook the village and are topped by rocky ridges which resemble the bristles on a hog's back (see picture below).
I stayed at a hostel called "Away with the Fairies", which fitted right in with the whole Lord of the Rings theme and had room names like Frodo and Bilbo. Some of the buildings even resembled hobbit holes. On Saturday I went hiking with a really interesting Norwegian girl, who's working on a social entrepreneurship project at the University of Fort Hare (where Nelson Mandela went) but is currently based in Tanzania. The hostel dogs came with us the whole way! We were really lucky with the weather and got some great views of the mountains, waterfalls and forests. It feels a bit like I've skipped a season, having gone straight from English springtime with daffodils and lambs to South African autumn with falling leaves and red hues. Pictures of Saturday below.
Sunday felt like a completely different season! We went mountain biking and got absolutely soaked but it was really good fun. Our guide Neels was really good at standing at the top of waterfalls, describing the view that we would have been seeing, if it wasn't for the huge cloud we were standing in. The trail he'd made himself totally rivalled the Bedgebury Forest routes in Kent. Ned and Angie - you would have loved it! Pictures below.
 |
| Hogsback mountains |
 |
| Not a bad place for a bubble bath! |
 |
| With Jenny, one of the hostel dogs in the forest |
 |
| With Helen and Jenny at Bridal Veil Falls |
 |
| The view from the top of Madonna and Child Falls |
 |
| Autumnal colours |
 |
| Taking a break |
 |
| Overlooking the Amatola mountains |
 |
| The dogs lead the way home |
 |
| The first hour with no rain (in the arboretum) |
 |
| Venturing out to the top of the Madonna and Child Waterfall in the pouring rain |
 |
| Neels discovers one of the monkeys pooed on his bag |
 |
| Getting absolutely soaked by the Madonna and Child Falls |
 |
| Helen and I take cover for a snack stop... |
 |
| ...while Neels changes a flat tyre |
 |
| "Isn't this fun" (slightly forced) smile |
 |
| On the amazing bike trail through the forest |
No comments:
Post a Comment