In East London we stayed at the Sugar Shack in a little wooden ht with a sea view. We went for a walk and came to the spar shop. Determined to cook something nice we looked around. We decided to have beef stirfry with noodles and make enough for two days. Indeed it was very nice and people kept telling us how good it looked. That evening we were feeling quite tired so we got in our sleeping bags and watched Twilight on Sarah`s iphone. We were just getting to sleep when outside we could here a girl shouting about her boyfriend kissing another girl! It all goes down in Sugar Shack town!

The next morning we left for Hogsback in a shuttle from the hostel Away with the Faires. The man picked us up and explained he had to pick up a college who does the bike riding at Hogsback who had gone to get some parts for the bikes. We stopped in a car park near some shops and waited for about half an hour, during this time the driver rang him several times telling him to hurry up. When he eventually got to the car he got in and started having an argument with the driver saying "I dont care if they are waiting I need to get some stuff" (but with a few swear words mixed in!!) So we were just sat in the back lookig at each other feeling very awkward. After they had finished argueing he turned around and politely said hello to us as though nothing had happened! We also had to stop at a pharmacy and builders yard before we could set off for Hogsback. The journey then took 90 minutes to get there. Hogsback is inland and up in the mountains, it is said to be the place that Lord of the Rings is based on.

When we arrived we were shown to our room and then we went to the bar / reception to try to go horseriding. The phones werent working so they couldnt arrange horseriding for us, so we decided to stay another night there so we could go the day after instead. As there was nothing else to do we ended up staying in the bar where Paul the barman gave us a free welcome drink. We decided to have pizza from the bar and a few more drinks. A couple of other people arrived and the man from the Sugar Shack hostel was also there. We all played cards and Jenga. Some other people arrived from down the road who practised fire dancing outside. At 11:30 I was a bit cold and decided to go to bed, Sarah rolled in 3 hours later at 2:30 when they had decided it was going to be topless half hour!

The next day we went to the grocery shop and then got ready to go horse riding at 2pm. Shane the horse trainer came to pick us up, we had been told to look out for his monobrow and it was quite impressive. He drove us to the horse ranch and introduced us to the horses. I was riding Tammy as she was a good horse for beginers. Sarahs horse was smaller than mine but apparently was faster, she had that one as she has done horseriding before. We started off walking through the forest on a path. We came to a small stream and they said just to warn you the horse will jump. JUMP I thought! Ive never ridden a horse before and its gonna jump! I held on tight and thank god didnt fall off. There were 4 dogs running along with us through the forest. Shane said lets try to trot so we did. Trotting is very bouncy and I was bouncing around all over the place. You are supposed to try and rise and fall with the horse so you dont bounce as much but im not sure I was quite manageing it. Then after a while longer he said shall we try to canter. That meant the horse running even faster. I was a bit unsure but Shane said cantering is better than trotting as it is not as bouncy. I didnt really have a choice anyway as when the other two horses ran so did mine. Shane was right though it wasnt as bouncy but some of the time I felt myself tipping to one side and thought i was gonna fall off. Then we cut through the trees and Shane said dont worry if Tammy goes a different way she knows where she is going. As we rode off she followed the other two horses but then turned off to the right and went a completly different way to the other two. When we came out of te trees the other two horses were there waiting for us, so she did know where she was going. We then went down a steep hill to get back to the farm. Shane and Sarah had to get off and walk down the hill as there horses were too young to carry people down the hill, I could stay on but that scared me slightly as it was a steep hill. Shane you will be fine just lean back, so I did and it was fine not scary at all. We got back to the farm, our ride had lasted one hour and a half.

When we got back to the lodge we reheated our beef noodles from the other night and they still tasted good. We went back to the bar and played cards again but we didnt drink anything besides Pauls best efforts to get us to. When it was dark Paul took us outside to watch the moon rise. It appeared from behind one of the mountains. It was exactly the same as a sunrise but it was the moon. After that we went to bed.

In the morning we got ready to leave to go to Chintsa, the next stop on our way.