Eastern Cape 2009 - Hogsback

Once again we took the longer, gravel roads on a beautifully sunny day so had superb views and we saw buck and several warthog families beside the road.

As we approached the Amathole Mountains we saw a distinct change as everywhere it was looking green and there were lots of rural settlements dotted along the valley. As the road climbed up the hillsides were covered in trees.

Hogsback village is obviously a popular place as every other house was offering B&B or self-catering accommodation and there are several walking trails in the area.

We followed a track from the village of Hogsback up into the mountains. These 3 peaks are called Hog 1, Hog 2 and (yes you've guessed it!) Hog 3.

A bit further along the track we came across this dam with Hog 1 behind.

We saw some beautiful lilies on the grass verges.

Sunset at the campsite in Hogsback.

We just spent 1 night in Hogsback as we needed to get back to Richmond so that I could arrange to extend my temporary resident's permit but it's certainly somewhere that we'd like to go back to and do some walking.

These houses are typical of the rural settlements with a mixture of round and rectangular colourful dwellings. We also saw several hexagonal and octagonal buildings - easier to make with bricks but still giving the traditional round appearance.

Some settlements now have electricity but a lot are still waiting to be connected.

We passed lots of settlements on the way back to Richmond in the northern part of the Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal.

As we drove back so the landscape became greener again and we saw overflowing rivers.

At one point we came to a river crossing, but the bridge was down (it looked as if it was in the middle of being repaired) and there was quite a lot of water in the river so I waded across checking for depth and boulders – mostly in was no higher than my knee so Kev took the truck across easily.

Mount Currie Nature Reserve
Rhodes
Mountain Zebra National Park
Graaff-Reinet
Baviaanskloof
Addo Elephant National Park
Hogsback
Diary - Word document

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