After visiting my lovely sister, I was lucky enough to visit my lovely Aunty Ann and Uncle Peter in East London. East London South Africa, I’m talking about here, not East London, East London. I could tell you all types of interesting facts about East London (founded by John Bailie in 1836, only river port in South Africa, etc, etc), but it’s my beautiful family that makes it so beautiful!

My beautiful great cousin, Sarah – and yes, I do know that she is my first-cousin-once-removed (google told me), but I prefer great and it is my blog after all – is sooooo cute and at 2 years old can ask for the secateurs (gardening scissors for my non-removed-cousins among you). Sheer genius and absolutely gorgeous to boot. (Note: clearly gets it from me…not!)

Okay, so maybe I should tell you a bit about our stay in East London. Ann very kindly took us about town and showed us the many lovely sights around East London. It really is a beautiful place. There are hidden bays and beaches, beautiful river walks with animals and birds, game parks and so much more.

We were lucky enough to see Duiker – Bush Buck that are at most only 50cm high and tend to be nocturnal near human settlements – and many other buck, including the Bontebok / Blesbok – a very pretty antelope with a white strip from the forehead to the tip of the nose. They are in the photo below….yes I know you can’t quite see them, sigh. Will do better next time, fingers crossed!

We also saw young Fallow Deer and one of the young males was quite enamoured with me. This did afford me the opportunity to take photos in which one can actually see an animal. I know, I know, there is just no end to my skills. What amazed me most was the amount of ticks on the animal. We need to send over a few thousand Egrets to munch them away.


We visited Glengariff, a beautiful little village on the outskirts of East London, Nahoon beach and river and other lovely scenic places. We also visited my uncle’s school. I am proud to say that Peter is headmaster of the wonderful Stirling Primary School and if you have a child of primary school age, Stirling school comes highly recommended. And not just because Peter’s family, but because it is super!

Okay enough raving about my lovely family and East London. I’m going to end off with a few more photos of East London and say, Thank you to Ann and Peter, and my super cousin Matthew and his lovely wife Marina and my great cousin Sarah. Hugs and kisses