This is a great outride for a day and takes you through old frontier towns like Komga, Stutterheim & Keiskamma.

Sean & I spent the night with our families at the lovely Haga Haga hotel situated 20m from the sea.

We chose to take some of the gravel farm roads through the country side.  One has to beware of buck and domestic animals that appear out of nowhere.  Sean nearly rode into a bushbuck that jumped out from behind a bush.

We stopped at Saint Matthews where my cousins, “the Thorpes” use to live.  Reverend Thorpe ran the beautiful church and was involved in the local clinic and school.  As kids my parents use to drive from Hogsback along the same route we were driving to Saint Matthews to visit our cousins.  It is a pity that the clinic, house, school and church have been neglected over the years and look really run down.

After passing the Sandla Dam, we turned right onto the gravel track and travelled up the winding pass along the Wolfridge Road through the Hogsback indigenous forests.  Luckily, it had not rained so the route was easy going.  Once you enter the indigenous forest, the road is always damp so one needs to navigate the sharp corners to avoid slipping on the slippery surface.

We stopped at Ninas Restaurant and enjoyed great pizza and home craft beer before continuing our journey to Kirkwood via the Hogsback pass, Alice, Fort Beaufort and Grahamstown.  There are many really nice places to stay at Hogsback and is the ideal place to stay if you enjoy outdoor activities.

We met up with the rest of the Elliott family at Broadlands Country Guest House in Kirkwood where we spent the next couple of days for a family Christmas.