Hiking in Hogsback

Our roadtrip up South Africa’s east coast had already been filled with adven­ture (and a few mis­haps) by the time we reached Hogsback in the Eastern Cape. Situated in the Amatola Mountains and named after three ridges which (appar­ently) look like the bristles on a hog’s back, Hogsback turned out to be one of my favour­ite places on our east coast trek.

Although there is plenty in Hogsback to amuse and delight, includ­ing The Labyrinth and the Eco shrine, our primary goal was to do some ser­i­ous hik­ing and take in the truly spec­tac­u­lar land­scape that the area has to offer.  With so many trails on offer we were at some­thing of a loss as to which hikes we could safely and com­fort­ably do in the two days that we were going to be there ...

Luckily people in the area are incred­ibly friendly and only too eager to help. We were soon advised by a local that we had to tackle Tor Doone, a peak which allows an amaz­ing view of the sur­round­ing area. Apparently Tor Doone is also pop­u­lar with bikers and we saw a few bikers as we began our hike, mak­ing me slightly envi­ous and also regret­ful that I had left my trail bike at home.

But one can hardly feel too regret­ful or depressed amongst the swathes of indi­gen­ous forest which resemble a lush land­scape on Middle Earth more than a typ­ical South African land­scape. No won­der then, as we learned after­wards, that legend has it that the Amatola forest inspired Tolkien’s vis­ion for the forest of Mirkwood in Lord of the Rings. Yellowwoods and white stink­woods are plen­ti­ful here and one really has to keep one’s eyes open in order not to miss any of the nat­ural richness.

After stop­ping for a deli­cious packed lunch and a sight­ing of sev­eral birds of prey that we circled lazily above us (some of our party said they were buz­zards) we con­tin­ued along the path and up to the Tor Doone peak. Although we were advised that the hike was easy enough, the Contour Path on Tor Doone was fairly tir­ing for inex­per­i­enced hikers such as ourselves but it was well worth the view of the area that we got from the peak. History buffs will also be inter­ested to know that a com­mem­or­ative plaque marks the remains below the peak where Fort Mitchell, a British out­post, once stood.

The second day of our time in Hogsback found us explor­ing the town a little and then head­ing out for a short walk on the grass­land plat­eau.  Although we didn’t get to see much of the local fauna, we were told that the endangered Cape Parrot can some­times be found in this area, as well as many other spe­cies of bird­life and mon­keys. Other walks in the area include a two-day cir­cu­lar hike (which sounds fant­astic) Elandsberg, the Gaika’s Kop,  one of the highest peaks in the area and a former Xhosa strong­hold, and hikes up the three ‘Hog’ ridges.

Useful Hogsback Links:
I ♥ Hogsback because …
Hogsback Attractions
Things to Do in Hogsback
Hogsback Accomoodation
Eastern Cape Accommodation