Hogsback Adventures

So we’ve gone to Hogsback twice now. Hogsback is this little town up in the mountains; it is beautiful! We went once with all our YSA friends, chasing snow. It had snowed the night before, but then it turned to rain and all melted. It was actually a beautiful sunny day, very autumnal feeling. I loved it! We hiked around a bunch, down to different waterfalls and to this 800 year old tree. The second time we went with Cornelius and Kathy and I’m just going to use my journal entry for that : )

            Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for Hogsback. We left about 8:30 with Kathy and Cornelius. It was great! We got to ask them a bunch of field study questions. That was the first half of the drive, I fell asleep past King William’s Town. Cornelius knows everything, I swear. He has so many interesting tidbits to share! East London has the most millionaires out of all the cities in SA. The largest informal settlement is just outside of EL. And the largest township too? Or second largest? That is Mdatsane. The freeway between EL and King Will’s is really nice, because back during apartheid EL and King Will were white cities and they built the road to connect them because they were surrounded by all these black areas. EL got its name because it was a shipping port and a bunch of the workers were from the slums of East London, England. There were several German settlements and a whole boatload of Irish ladies came down to be married off, but they didn’t like the rough Germans so they married other people…all these stories! It was a gorgeous morning, clear blue skies. Hogsback is having its annual Christmas in July Festival right now, so when we got there people were wearing red and white elf hats and there were booths and stuff all over. We went and used the toilets and then drove to Swallowtail fall. It was a short hike/walk to get there, very beautiful. Then we drove up to Kettlespout – a thin stream that shoots out over the edge of a cliff. Kathy stayed in the car for that one, it was a lot steeper of a hike. Cornelius lived in Hogsback for nine months once, in a little cottage. He did all the walks and wandered through the woods…it sounded like a really cool time.

            Walking up to Kettlespout part of the trail was completely surrounded by tall trees, like walking through a narrow tunnel. It was cool, especially with the sun shining down through the leaves. I really liked Kettlespout. It opened up there and you had a great view – again, I was reminded strongly of Moscow! We jumped the little stream to look at a place that Kathy and Cornelius came to once for a champagne breakfast? For their anniversary I think. Poor Emily slipped and took a little dip. Oh! I forgot – when we were sand boarding Emily had a good run and then fell off right at the end, when it was already flat. Her foot got stuck or something. Anyway she landed right on her tail bone and the poor girl has been limping around since then. She can walk fine, but bending or sitting down or getting up cause her pain. No fun! But she didn’t land on it again in the stream, she caught herself…earlier Cornelius said something about how we couldn’t say we’d really walked a trail unless we crossed the stream via log. So I immediately found a good log to clamber over. He said he was just kidding! But I got extra credit. Cornelius is funny…he just kept saying our names. “Quincey Belle Cole – you sound like a film star” and “Emily Mae” and “Holly, Holly, Holly” – some movie quote? We went back down to Kathy and then we drove around Hogsback and wound up at a big field where they had a big tent and booths and some groups performing. The booths were all the stuff we’d seen before, nothing too exciting. The performing people were cool – younger guys and girls and singing and dancing and drums. We sat and watched for a bit and Cornelius ate some spring rolls. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the Edge. There is a little café there and one of the world’s largest labyrinths. It was cool, but not as cool as I thought – I was envisioning shrubbery and a maze and spending hours lost …it was actually just stone paths with little flowers and no maze, you could only go way. It was cool though, we walked the whole thing, curving around and around. 1.6 km to the middle, I think? We walked down to the Edge – a cool stone cliff. Think the scene in Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth and dramatic music “Liz on Top of the World” I think? Took some pictures.

            Pile back in the car. The weather had shifted by then – clouds and wind. It was definitely a bit colder. OH well. Cornelius drove us past where he used to live, I would love to live in Hogsback. There are lots of fun little properties and cabins. Next we drove to this little chapel, St. James? St. Patricks? It was cool – stone with thatched roof. Originally built in 1913 and then expanded…it burned down though in 2010 and was rebuilt. We were all pretty tired at this point – climbing in and out of cars and driving around is seriously exhausting! What the heck! We drove down to the Butterfly Bistro a super fun little café type place…there were a bunch of hippies camped outside. I mean hippies! Dreadlocks, bare feet, clothes. One guy had a sweet leather hat and goggles – aviator style. But the hat was covered in beads and pins. They were selling some crafts and some food – toasties.  The Bistro was a cool cabin type building. They had a Christmas Tree up. The ladies at the counter were all wearing crazy clothes and sparkly make up and glitter and had designs on their faces…haha, it actually reminded me a lot of Harry Potter really. Think of some witches in Diagon Alley. I got some soup and bread…it took a long time! They were quite busy. Emily and I made ourselves comfortable at the counter, they had stools. They were selling candies and butterfly mallows and beaded butterflies…stuff like that. Kind of ketchy, but cute too. My soup finally arrived and we went out to the car where everyone else was waiting and we left Hogsback. Farewell!

            On the drive home we pumped Cornelius some more. Asked about education and other stuff – I’ll write it up for my field study assignment. He told us about moving to the USA. He and his family lived there for six years while he studied at Notre Dame. I didn’t realize they were there for that long! They came back after apartheid had ended.