Hogsback

39 Steps Waterfall

This past weekend, for four days, four friends and myself traveled to Hogsback, which is about three and a half hours away from Port Elizabeth, up into the Hogsback Mountains.  Hogsback is famous for being the place J.R.R Tolkin got his inspiration for The Lord of the Rings books.  Overall, I can see why!  I felt like I was in The Lord of the Rings movies every day! Thursday and Friday, it rained unfortunately  so we couldnt do much but walk around the small village of Hogsback.  Despite the rain though, we were able to see one waterfall and some gorgeous redwood trees!

Giant Redwoods!

On Saturday, it was finally sunny, and we were so glad, because there were so many things we wanted to do!  We started out with about a six hour hike, through the jungle and forest of the mountains, overall, seeing three waterfalls, and a 1,000 year old tree!

1,000 year old yellow-wood!

After the long hike, we made it back to our backpacker just in time for a sunset horseback ride!  This was very eventful to say the least!  A few of the girls that went on the ride had never been on a horse before, and so we thought it would be a very relaxed ride.  However, the instructor had a different idea.  We were just riding along, at a pretty slow pace, when he instructed the horses to begin trotting, and then galloping!  I dont especially prefer horseback riding, so going on this ride initially was kind of a tough choice, and then when we started galloping I was not thrilled!  I had all I could do to keep myself on the horse, and honestly, it was kind of scary.  That was just the beginning though!  After we watched the sunset, the instructor decided it would be okay to take us back to the backpacker via a very steep, scary, wet (because of the previous rain) ans slippery hill-in the DARK!  At this point, especially because I am not experience with horses- I was TERRIFIED.  At any second, I felt like my horse would slip, fall and either crush me or I would fall off.  I literally could do nothing but close my eyes and pray that some how, I made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece.  About half way down the hill, as my horse was blindly feeling its way down, it lost its footing and straight up SLID/FELL/GALLOPED down the hill at full speed.  This was one of the most terrifying five minutes of my life, no joke, but somehow, we made it to the bottom still standing and in one piece.  Oofta.  Through it all though, this will be an experience I wont forget, and the sunset was pretty amazing, I have to admit!

Also, I should mention the backpacker we stayed at while in Hogsback.  It was defiantly the most unique place I have stayed here yet in South Africa!  Terra-Khaya is a backpacker that prides itself on being super eco-friendly.  There is little to no running water or electricity, so needless to say, I needed a shower when I got back to Port Elizabeth!  It was also very, very cold at night with no heat and being in the mountians at a higher elevation, and so I was also thankful to be back in my nice warm bed when we got back!  Terra-Khaya grows nearly everything organically and raises all the meat it uses as well through free range chickens, pigs and cows.  Since they do this, all the meals they served us were very healthy and mostly organic- so they were super delicious!  Overall, I really enjoyed seeing all of the amazing scenery and fun things Hogsback had to offer, and it was nice to get out into nature, but after four days I defiantly had my fill.  Hogsback is defiantly be one of the most challenging and different places I visited in South Africa.

The inside of our dorm-note the tree!

The dorm we stayed in

The inside of the "living room" of our backpacker