The Amazing and Arduous Amatola

Wow.... What a weekend in the Amatola Mountains: Sharkie, Ruth, Rogan and myself headed out after work on Friday (March 2, 2007) to the village of Hogsback where the start of our 36 km two-day hike was to begin the following morning. This hike is part of a 5-day hike that spans over 100 km. We were so innocent and naive had no clue what was in store for us..... The first day was to be a 9-hour hike, and the second day to be a 7-hour hike which would land you back at the starting point.

On Friday night, we sojourned in two mud huts (one for the ladies, and the other for the gents) owned by a friend of Rogan. It is made of sticks and mud mixed with cow dung. And no, it doesn't smell like cow dung. Once the mixture of water, mud and cow dung is prepared and the wall is made, it dries and provides for great scent-less walls which insulate quite well - even better than most cheaply made brick homes. I slept like a new-born infant after braaing some pork chops, onions and potatoes complemented with a bottle of South African Cabernet Sauvignon (the name escapes me at this point in time).

I was informed that JRR Tolkien lived in Bloemfontein for a while and the Amatola Mountains and the village of Hogsback were the inspiration behind his trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. Hence, the names of Hobbiton and Rivendell in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

We commenced the hike the following day at 9:00 a.m [see below]. The initial part of the hike was an extremely steep climb from the Tyume river. To my amazement, I was huffing and puffing, despite all the hiking I had done since my arrival in South Africa. I informed the group that I needed sugar, and proceeded to ear a pear to boost my sugar levels and pressed on, lagging behind the group.

We took a break in the middle of a water fall [see below]:









The picture below is evidence of my tomato-face due to all the huffing and puffing :)

The ascent through the forest up the Hogsback Mountain was murderous. We managed to stray from the path when we came to a crossroads and couldn't figure out to go left or right. Now, this meant we had a 50% chance of picking the right route, and we picked the wrong one. About 4 km later, we decided to head back to the crossroad in which we suspected we had taken a fowl turn and decide from there. I have attached a picture of us when we were lost [see below]: We decided, at the crossroad, to head the other direction, figuring we couldn't be wrong since we had been wrong before and that comprised a 50% probability. We were right this time, and the ascent resumed. The good news was that we found the trail again, but the bad news was that our getting lost cost us an hour and a half of time (which is a lot for an estimated 8-hour hike) which equates to 4 km.

When we exited the forest to more naked and dry terrain, I could barely move my feet up the mountain - the sun was too taxing on me, and I couldn't cope anymore. My feet were shuffling and all I could think was "left....right....left....right.....". We breaked and the boys took some of the groceries in my backpack to lighten my load. My face was redder than a boiled tomato and redder than the picture I posted above!

We marched across the top of the Hogsback Mountain and walked, and walked, and walked. We all got scratched by nasty thorns which consistently decided to fling themselves across the path discreetly, making me curse the Department of Water Affairs and Tourism for promoting this trail. The view was absolutely gorgeous and I took pictures [see below].

Flowers in bloom (of course you knew I would endear this posting with incessant pictures of the magnificent flora and fauna I stumble across in the bush):
After our welcomed march across the Hogsback, we slowly but surely began our descent. Believing we were getting close to the hut turned out to be false hope. As a huge cloud of mist rolled in, we exclaimed how beautiful it was, and I even paused to take some pictures [see below] which, in hindsight, I wouldn't have done. Not even 15 minutes later, the thunder and lightning started. I don't think I had ever been so soaked in my life. It was surreal. We walked as fast as we could through forest, bush, wattle forest, fern fields - the variety of scenery on the trial was astounding! Sharkie reminded me, when I was faltering and losing energy, that we had to keep a good pace otherwise we would be stuck in the mountains at dark which is very, very very bad news. We still had about 7 km to go, which is about another 3 1/2 hours and it was 3:00 p.m. at that point. I must admit, I did get a bit panicked when that dawned on me and it gave me that renewed jolt of energy that Sharkie was hoping I would get.

At one point during the last three kilometres of the hike, when we were marching along the side of a huge 2000 m high cliff (very dangerous!) I saw a tiny gremlin-like animal sitting on a tree stump looking at me. It's eyes were entirely black, and my heart skipped a beat! When I realized that I was so exhausted that I was hallucinating, I had to chuckle about this. Perhaps the same thing happened to Mr. Tolkien and that is how Lord of the Rings was spawned.....

In any case, we made it alive to the hut around 18h00 that evening, after 9 hours of hiking! We were completely and utterly exhausted and cold, but very happy to finally be at the hut [see below]!

(below, the hut is behind Ruth, concealed by the trees)
I had no dry clothing as everything was soaked through and through, so Ruth loaned me a spare tank top, which proved to be the only dry garment on my body. After taking a break [see below], we soon set about to business - dry firewood was found which needed chopping. Naturally, the damsels in distress looked to our men. One was so exhausted, he went to sleep instantly. But Charl took the reins and chopped the wood, got the fire going and kept the morale up. We had a lovely evening and braaied pork chops, grilled veggies and baked potatoes.

Sleep crept up on us around 23h00 and we gladly called it a night [see picture of Ruth's bunk bed below]:
We woke up the following morning to a heavy drizzle of rain which was damp and cold [see below]. I actually didn't mind too much since I knew that we would all be in our warm houses that evening and not at another hut with clothing even more wet that the day before...

The hike back was, according to the map, a steep ascent and then a steep descent up and over two mountains called Hog 1 and Hog 2. After discussing our options and determining that it was not particularly safe in rainy weather to take this route, we decided to take the gravel road which is an emergency exit. The hike back was to be 7 hours (15 km), but the road was about 10km and took us two and half hours. Prior to leaving the hut, I took a picture of the famous four [see below - left to right is: Rogan, Charl, Ruth and Emma]: We set out and hit the road quite soon out of the forest. A pick-up truck passed us and stopped to enquire if we were okay. We replied that we were. The driver was out to rescue some four hikers who did the first leg of the trail (which is part of the 5-day hike) about 100 km away. Apparently, those hikers had gotten lost, gotten stuck in the rain and gotten stuck in the dark, having only made it to their hut around 20h30, about an hour and a half after sun-down. They couldn't complete the rest of the loop and called to be picked up.

We walked along the gravel road for about 12 km (2 1/2 hours) and eventually made it to Hobbiton where the car was parked. Bad news: the "car" was a pick-up truck with no cover on the back. Charl and I huddled under our wet sleeping bags to Hogsback where we stopped to eat, warm up and relax before the two hour drive back to Grahamstown...

Driving on the back of the pick-up truck turned out to be better than I thought. When the pick-up was in motion, the rain didn't fall on us at all. We managed to snack on peanuts and chat all the way back to Grahamstown. Seeing Ruth sitting in the cubby with an Alpaca (which is baby llama wool for those of you that don't know) poncho on sparked a slight bit of envy, but I was enjoying the experience of feeling like cargo in the back of a pick-up truck :)

My muscles were so sore for the next two days and I was overly tired. Even though it put us through a rugged hell at one point, we all had fun and bonded.