Hogsback

Hogsback sits at around 1,200 metres in the Amathole Mountains, about 30 km from the town of Alice and roughly halfway between Alice and Cathcart. The village is named for the three ridges visible from below that resemble the backs of running wild pigs. Some accounts credit Captain Hogg. The name does not matter much once you are there — what matters is the forest. Centuries-old Afro-montane forest covers the slopes: real ancient forest with yellowwood, Cape holly, and hard pear, the kind that blocks the light and makes the paths quiet and dark.

The most-repeated claim about Hogsback is that J.R.R. Tolkien, who was born in Bloemfontein and spent time in the Eastern Cape as a child, drew on these forests as inspiration for Mirkwood in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien scholars debate the specifics. What is certain is that the forest here looks the part, and visitors who arrive with that story in mind tend to find the forest obliges them. The Big Tree — an 800-year-old yellowwood standing 36.5 metres high and holding the record as the largest tree in the Eastern Cape — is accessible via a short walk and worth making the effort for.

Hogsback has waterfalls — Swallow Tail, Madonna and Child, Kettle Spout, and 39 Steps in the Arboretum among them — connected by a network of hiking trails through the forest. Some are short walks; some require most of a day. A bike trail runs past several waterfalls to hidden viewpoints. The Cape Parrot, Africa's most endangered parrot with only around 1,600 individuals remaining, survives here in the Amathole forest patches. Spotting one is not guaranteed but is possible.

The village is small and slightly eccentric — artists, herbalists, and long-term forest dwellers alongside a tourist infrastructure of guesthouses, a couple of restaurants, and craft shops. The mist comes in most afternoons. Rain is a serious possibility at any time of year. Pack for both sun and wet.