Hogsback's labyrinth — travelling within whilst staying in the same place

I was over­awed by the labyrinth set in the gar­dens at The Edge in Hogsback in the Eastern Cape. I've sub­sequently read someone else's unim­pressed com­ments and am struck anew by how two people, look­ing at exactly the same object, can have two such oppos­ing exper­i­ences, des­pite the obvi­ous beauty of a place.

The labyrinth is set vir­tu­ally on the edge of a cliff with the most spec­tac­u­lar views of the val­ley below, the Amatola Mountains, and an expanse of sky that together have a for­mid­able visual impact. Even if you know noth­ing about labyrinths, and do not intend trav­el­ling its path­ways, its set­ting alone resounds with an intan­gible qual­ity that is imme­di­ately calm­ing, and yet exhil­ar­at­ing. It cel­eb­rates life, the uni­verse and everything – to quote Douglas Adams ...

Despite its pos­i­tion in the midst of a self-catering hol­i­day retreat, the Hogsback labyrinth is avail­able for every­one. It is also one of the largest labyrinths in the world and its path­way is 700 metres, mak­ing it a total dis­tance of 1.4 kilo­metres if you fol­low the desired jour­ney of wind­ing your way out again once you've reached the centre – plenty of time to con­tem­plate, breath and lux­uri­ate in the sur­round­ing beauty.

Officially it is an eleven-circuit labyrinth, sim­ilar in design to that in the Chartres Cathedral in France, and an intric­ate design. A labyrinth, I was to learn, is not a maze (des­pite my expect­a­tions of tower­ing walls of lav­ender in which I would have to 'find myself') but a path­way to spir­itual dis­cov­ery and ful­fill­ment. The idea is to use the path­ways as a way to heighten pray­er­ful atti­tudes, med­it­at­ive states and spirtual con­tem­pla­tion or reflection.

The idea is to pre­pare your­self care­fully before­hand, doing things like quiet­en­ing the mind, remov­ing your watch and switch­ing off your cell phone, tak­ing deep breaths and con­tem­plat­ing a pur­pose for the walk, even though releas­ing any expect­a­tions is key to the allow­ing the pattern's energy and pur­pose to reveal themselves.

On the first day we headed out here, to the edge of town, an elec­tric storm was brew­ing. My excite­ment and determ­in­a­tion to walk the labyrinth saw me begin the jour­ney regard­less, and in fact, the atmo­sphere was so invig­or­at­ing, that my first exper­i­ence was not the quiet and con­tem­plat­ive walk I envis­aged, but an ener­getic flight together with my four-year old son, who des­pite my reser­va­tions, flung him­self at the task of stay­ing within the para­met­ers cre­ated by the labyrinth's design with aplomb and aban­doned joy.

This was not a sol­emn con­tem­pla­tion but a flight of exhil­ar­a­tion. Yet there was no rush, dis­trac­tion or anxi­ety to com­plete the course. My mind and spirit were focused and our jour­ney was a dance, a twirl and a whirl of hap­pi­ness. I was unsur­prised to read later that some people feel this exuber­ance when the ini­tial half of the walk is com­plete and they are in the labyrinth's centre.

I was also not to com­plete my ini­tial two attempts at doing the labyrinth. This time, the angry clouds off to the left, made their pres­ence known in no uncer­tain terms and my son and I skipped our way back through an ever-increasing rain­fall to The Tea Thyme res­taur­ant where hot chocol­ate was the order of the day.

Labyrinths have a pro­tect­ive and nur­tur­ing nature and are often used in homes, ships and cathed­rals as a carving or paint­ing to keep all within safe. This labyrinth lies right in front of the func­tions venue and I can ima­gine that it is an incred­ible site for med­it­a­tion classes, paint­ing, writ­ing and poetry work­shops, and even wed­dings (although they only accept func­tions that will not dis­turb the tran­quil­lity of the place).

The fif­teen acre garden at The Edge Mountain Retreat runs right along the edge of a cliff and the labyrinth is but one ele­ment, although a spe­cial one. Accommodation is avail­able in eleven or so cot­tages and ron­davels, each in their own private space. I can ima­gine this would be a won­der­ful hon­ey­moon stay, par­tic­u­larly the Cliffside Cottage that stands vir­tu­ally sus­pen­ded on the edge of the cliff at the end of the property.

When I finally com­pleted the pat­tern on my third attempt, it was early in the morn­ing – a glor­i­ous sun-filled day dur­ing which shy Knysna loer­ies flir­ted with me in the sur­round­ing trees and a rather alarm­ing host of grasshop­pers came to mow the leaves of the hydrangeas on the outer path­ways of the labyrinth.

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