Wanderlust (n): a strong, innate desire to travel.: Happy Hogs!

This weekend (3-5 May) we decided to pack up our bags and head over to Hogsback, which is about two hours from Grahamstown. Hogsback is home to lush forests and mountains. It is situated high up on the Amathole Mountains of the Eastern Cape and is surrounded by "centuries-old indigenous Afro-montane forests". Hogsback is said to be the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit. Hogsback is often referred to as South Africa's very own mystical fairytale land.

On Friday, we left school around 1:30 and headed out on our adventure. After driving for quite some time, we finally arrived in Hogsback around 3:30. We were unfortunately greeted with cool air and a light drizzle, so we quickly checked into the backpacker. We were staying at "Away With the Fairies", which was said to be one of the most quirky backpackers in Hogsback.

Away With The Fairies Backpacker, Hogsback

The map hanging on the wall-- only slightly helpful

After being given a quick tour of the backpacker, we were shown to where we would be spending the next two nights.

Our room

Our cabin

Another cottage at the backpacker

After settling down, we decided to go explore around the backpacker. Since it was raining, we didn't get too far.

Our group: 7 Americans & 1 British gal

One of the quirkest parts of the backpacker was the bathtub that overlooked the valley. There was a water heater up on the hill that you lit a fire to warm your bathwater. This tends to be one of the biggest attractions of the backpacker.

Due to poor weather, that evening we just had dinner, watched Lord of the Rings (Pt1) and went to bed. After a very cold night, we woke up the next day around noon to pounding rain. Despite the poor weather, we decided to head into town to grab lunch and groceries. We found the Butterfly Bistro and decided to eat lunch.

Kate, Miranda & I

After a warm lunch of hot chocolate & cheese pizza, we headed to the grocery store to grab supplies for lunch and dinner. After a freezing walk back to the cottage, we started a fire and made some hot chocolate. Due to my lack of cooking skills, I decided the best way for me to help with dinner was to stay as far away from the kitchen as I could.

Our contribution to dinner

We finally made a fire!

We found a cow on our walk home

After a wonderful dinner of salad & homemade macaroni and cheese, we sat down in front of our roaring fire to watch Lord of the Rings (pt2). We all decided to head to bed early since we were planning on waking up at 4am to go watch the meterior shower. Apparently the meteor shower was only visible in the southern hemisphere and was residual meteors from Halley's Commet (1994).

Dedication.

After a very cold wake up, we all headed outside to watch the shower. It was absolutely stunning and we were so lucky that it cleared up so we could actually see the sky. After being outside for twenty minutes and seeing around 20 meterors, we decided that we were absolutely freezing and headed back inside.

Sunday morning, it finally cleared up and we were finally able to see the beauty that is Hogsback. We mapped out a four hour hike that we wanted to do that would take us to the Madonna & Child waterfall. Two of the dogs from our backpacker decided to join us on our adventure. After cleaning up our cabin, we decided to hit the trails.

Leaving our backpacker.

Ready to go.

On our walk we found the "Big Tree" which is an 800 year old tree situated in the middle of the forest.

After another hour and a half, we made our way to the waterfall!

After taking thousands of pictures and eating a quick lunch, we hiked up the waterfall and were able to find the road to take us back to our backpacker.

After a few last pictures at the backpacker, our driver Sean arrived and we all piled back into the van. Kate asked if we could quickly go to The Edge because there was a labyrinth she wanted to see before we headed back to Grahamstown.