Hogsback — a town of pure magic and mystical atmosphere

Madonna & Child Falls

Not many people know much about Hogsback, or where it is, for that mat­ter, which per­haps is just as well given that its charm is some­thing one might want to pro­tect, and because the very essence of Hogsback is its almost oth­er­worldly silence, where it lies high up in the Amatola Mountains, sur­roun­ded by cen­tur­ies old indi­gen­ous forest.

All I knew about Hogsback, as we wound our way up the steep moun­tain roads covered in  fine mist and rain at the begin­ning of December, was that I had read and heard enough to want to visit, and that we were prob­ably in for a far colder week than my suit­case full of sum­mer clothes was going to allow — des­pite our kind landlady's good inten­tions at hav­ing emailed us to say that sum­mer had even­tu­ally arrived in the village!

Rambling Roses

Hogsback receives its name from the three ridges, known as 'three hogs', that dom­in­ate the area and lie on the edge of the beau­ti­ful Tyume Valley. From dif­fer­ent parts of Hogsback there are pan­or­amic views over this val­ley and one is con­stantly aware of being  enclosed by the Amatola Mountains. The place is enshrouded in gor­geous gar­dens, drip­ping in ram­bling roses, indi­gen­ous St John's wort and a mix­ture of exot­ics and local plants — everything seems to grow rampantly here, as if on ster­oids — and the bird life is fant­astic. It's also rumoured that Tolkien spent time here and that the sur­rounds influ­enced his writ­ing of Lord of the Rings.

It isn't hard to believe that faer­ies dwell in amongst the forests or that hob­bits could well trundle out of the woods, their bare feet obli­vi­ous to the snow that falls here dur­ing most win­ters. And amen­it­ies in Hogsback reflect this play on things oth­er­worldly with names like: The Fairy Realm, Mistyfell fruits and jam, Middle Earth organ­ics, Rivendell camp­site, The Ring hard­ware and bottle store, and the Enchanted Treehouse.

Madonna & Child Falls

The place is alive with artists, paint­ers, poets, musi­cians and pho­to­graph­ers and com­munity life thrives. As Rudi, from the Hoggest Shop that also has a buzz­ing little res­taur­ant told us, he could eas­ily get together a gath­er­ing of twenty five people for a spon­tan­eous din­ner, whilst in Cape Town, where he was formerly based, he wouldn't have man­aged that.

Our rev­erie at enter­ing Hogsback and being swept up in the beauty whilst mak­ing our way past a num­ber of quaint wooden hand­made and painted signs indic­at­ing the vari­ous amen­it­ies, accom­mod­a­tion and ser­vices in Hogsback, was rudely broken by our attempt to des­cend Winding Lane. This is one road you need a util­ity vehicle to nav­ig­ate! Set off the vil­lage, it was where our accom­mod­a­tion lay. A lot of Hogsback's roads remain untarred and a num­ber had been heav­ily eroded, des­pite there being a drought in the area.

Fairy Realm

But our accom­mod­a­tion in Hogsback, when we finally reached it, more than made up for any dif­fi­culty along the roads, and by the time we left Hogsback, we were behav­ing like seasoned dirt road fun­dis, des­pite own­ing a sedan. Winding Down cot­tage is a beau­ti­ful round house set in the midst of gar­dens and forest. Its centre is a din­in­groom with high ceil­ings in which sky­lights allow plenty of day­light. Off this beau­ti­ful room run a series of bed­rooms, bath­rooms, lounge and kit­chen – each with its own unique shape. It was a lovely space in which to relax.

And we had our share of rain. Of the six days we spent in the beau­ti­ful town, three of them were sub­ject to showers. Residents were cel­eb­rat­ing at finally receiv­ing much needed rain, and we entered into the spirit of things by set­ting out the minute there was a lull in the downpour.

Main Road, R345, is enter­tain­ment for a whole day and we wen­ded our way through vari­ous shops, res­taur­ants and hotels. Feeding off this major trib­u­tary, along which the odd truck car­ry­ing logs whooshed by, feed other roads with names like Orchard Lane, Nutwoods Drive, Holly Lane, Trewennan Lane and Dinwiddie Lane.

The vil­lage is extremely English and one could be for­given for think­ing that one had stumbled onto a dif­fer­ent con­tin­ent for a minute, if it were not for the South African hos­pit­al­ity and the tend­ency for Hogsback res­id­ents to whole­heartedly embrace inter­ac­tion with those who pass through. We met some amaz­ing indi­vidu­als, were able to see and exper­i­ence some phe­nom­enal attrac­tions, and oth­ers off the beaten track. We sampled bread made by the local baker at his home in wood-fired ovens and sold at Nina's near the Information Centre, we vis­ited the beau­ti­ful little church of St Patrick on the Hill, we vis­ited the Madonna and Child Falls, The Fairy Realm, and spent a won­der­ful lunch time pic­nick­ing a the Arboretum.

Best of all, we slowed down, learnt to breathe again and exper­i­enced, if only for a week, what it is like to live in tune with one­self and awe-inspiring nat­ural surrounds.

Must Do's in Hogsback:
The Labyrinth at The Edge
The Eco Shrine
The Fairy Realm (great for kids)
The Arboretum
The walk to Madonna and Child Falls
Tea Thyme res­taur­ant at the Edge
St Patrick on the Hill
Starways Pottery and The Rose Theatre
Nina's Deli
Waterfall Drive
Numerous fant­astic hikes, none of which we sampled but are the main reason many people visit the region

Avoid at all cost in Hogsback:
Clay and cement hogs sold on the side of the road (they might look cute, but they break within minutes of pur­chase)
Winding Lane  from Main Road (approach instead from Plaatjieskraal Road).

Photographs: Click the thumb­nails to enlarge

Useful Links:
Hogsback Attractions
Things to Do in Hogsback
Hogsback Accommodation
Eastern Cape Accommodation