Into the Hills in Hogsback
Hogsback is a lovely 2 hour drive from Grahamstown and we took it steady as we enjoyed the scenic mountain vistas. We passed a huge section of private game reserve comprising the Great Fish Conservation Area Complex but we didn’t manage to spy some game for free!
We had hoped to stop for a brew along the way but Fort Beaufort and Alice were very much functional towns and not a tea shop in sight! Once we hit the forested mountain road up to Hogsback, we were back on the tourist trail. We arrived in the village and made a beeline for the tourist information office to get the lay of the land and some information about hikes in the area. We found out we had to pay a small conservation fee if we intended to set out on any of the trails – fair enough.
The village is very tourist-orientated with a scattering of B & B s, cafes and restaurants. We decided to splash out and stay in the Hogsback Inn, a historical pub which is pleasingly worn at the seams and boasts a lot of character (as the guide book would say, rundown is another word!).
That afternoon we went for a wander and headed towards the ‘39 Steps’ waterfall, it was pretty but not sure there were 39 steps. Undeterred, we headed on another longer trail to ‘Kettlespout’ waterfall. This trail climbed steeply and we had spectacular views over the valley from the top of the falls. Being on top of the falls meant you couldn’t really get a great view of the actual falls. Nevertheless, a superb walk through the trees. We had hope to spot a group of the samango monkeys which inhabit the forest, but we didn’t spot a single primate on the walk. As we walked through the centre of the village we spotted a troop of the monkeys frolicking around in the trees – typical, walk all that way and they hanging around outside the pub!
We enjoyed a delicious meal that night in the ‘Happy Hogs’ restaurant, with a name like that it really sounded like our kind of place. We bagged a spot next to the fire to warm us up from the chilly mountain air and I enjoyed a steak which was the special.
We woke to clear mountain skies and tucked into the breakfast at the inn, the wood fire was glowing and views out to the hills added to the experience. Despite stuffing ourselves silly, we managed to do one more trail before leaving the area. We spent about 2 and half hours walking along the track from the ‘Madonna’ waterfall through the forest via the ‘big tree’ back to the village centre. The ‘big tree’ is a ginormous yellowwood about 800 years old and in that time has reached the heady heights of 38m. The trail ended at a view point with stupendous views across the valley. Someone thought that is spot would be a fantastic place to do their ablutions as there was a bath set into the rocks! Strange lot in Hogsback!
We were heading back to the coast but were not really sure where to break the journey overnight. We thought Bedford might be a nice little town, which is was, but it was totally shut. We tried a couple of guest houses but couldn’t rouse anyone. You should definitely not try to do anything on a Sunday afternoon in South Africa! We ploughed on hoping to spot a suitable town to rest our heads on the way back to the coast. Cookhouse was the next town marked on the map but when we rocked up we found it consisted of a petrol station and a takeaway. At least that was open! We continued on and were getting a little concerned as dusk was drawing in. Luckily about 20kms down the road we saw a sign for Middleton which claimed it had a B & B. Better give it a go but we were honestly expecting it to be shut. It turned out that Middleton is basically a church, a B & B and a pub (bet you cannot guess which of the 3 we frequented?) and they were open for food, drink and a bed for the night – perfect.
