Blogs from Hogsback, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa

I use Dropbox and Facebook mainly for anything to do with some motorbike experience. When I started to receive invites from DropBox because they “miss my presence” it was suddenly a stark reminder that a good bike trip was overdue. Although riding solo is not something which stops me easily, it is more fun to have some company and therefore I threw out the gauntlet or invitation to Marius (Colleague and friend) who accepted immediately. Marius immediately started to look for accommodation while I was still thinking about where to go, but at least we narrowed it down to something around Hogsback, 130 km from East London. Things developed fast and soon we were three people with the possibility of one more and the initial one day changed to staying over for two nights. A Promise ... read more

We rose early and set off with our packed lunch and first aid kit for our day of hiking. The mornign started well by climbing down through a forest on well marked paths. It was drisseling a bit but we didnt really feel it as teh forest was so thick. A bit spooky really. The trail was interesting as there were information signs every now and again about various species we encountered. After about 1.5 hrs we reached teh big tree. It was 800 years old and massive -m very impressive. We then marched on to our next goal - a waterfall. It took us about another hour to get here. It was basically a sheer cliff of rock out of teh forest - unbeleiveable how nature forms such a dramatci landscape. Feeling please with our ... read more

3 Nov - early start for a MAMMOTH drive. We leave at 7am and don't arrive at Hogsback until 13 hours later. However, picturesque drive along the Wild Coast through the Eastern Cape, the poorest region of South Africa. We reach 'Away with the Fairies' hostel at Hogsback, in the dark about 8.30pm. Errol and I do the tent demonstration for the new guys then head to the bar for a quick dinner. The drinking then starts in ernest...having had a Savanna on the truck I continue my African drinks of choice - Windhoek lager, a few Jagers (of course!) some springboks and lots of amarula. The bar staff (Andre, Nacho & Co) are totally crazy but great guys. Our crew stay out quite late partying but eventually its just Errol, Janet, Nav and I who ... read more

A couple weekends ago I went camping with the Rhodes Mountain Club. We went to Hogsback - a beautiful area of mountains and forest, which supposedly inspired Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. The name comes from the shape of the mountains: they look like the backs of hogs (apparently lol). We hiked up Hog 1 and camped at the top. I was excited that we were right next to a couple streams where we could refill our water bottles with African mountain water (don’t worry Mom, it was safe!) The trail we hiked was covered in these beautiful orange flowers. When I asked what they were called everyone answered: “weeds” haha. I eventually found them on Google - they’re called wild dagga. We were pretty lucky weather wise. It was cloudy and cool, and ... read more

It's shanos b'day and weve just got back from a walk in the mountains next to a village called hogsback which apparently inspired tolkein to create hobbiton. went past a few waterfalls and went for a dip in one, had a nice cold beer and played some tunes was beautiful. been quite hetic last week, i lost a toe whilst cage diving with the sharks then lost a finger whilst surfing! still well fun though. had a couple of huge piss ups in a surf hostel, fish bowl funnels galore. Went on an amazing township tour where we went to a school and all the kids were actually running up to us and huging us, quite somthing. then had another big night out in a casino where we all made 100 rand! (thats only about 8 ... read more