Animals we encountered in 2023

December 2023

A few days ago, Berto and I talked about what we saw and experienced in 2023. And our thoughts went specifically to all the different animals that crossed our path.

One would think that because we live on the African continent, we would have seen an abundance of different animals. And when we started making the list, we realised that we hadn’t seen nearly as many animals as we thought we had. So, we decided to post the animals we photographed in 2023 on our blog and then see how we can improve on this in the new year.

You would have seen many of these photos on our blog before, but come browse with us through our photo album of the animals of 2023.

  • Dassie Trail, East London (January 2023)

When my mother visited us at the beginning of this year, she went for a walk with me on the Dassie trail. At the very beginning of the trail, we saw a flock of guinea fowl walking in front of us.

Guinea fowl on a stroll

Afterwards we almost stepped on a gecko basking in the sun on the boardwalk and the big surprise was the little ‘blue duiker’ grazing near the pathway between the trees.

Unfortunately, we never saw the ‘dassies’ (rock hyraxes) after which the trail is named. But fear not, there is a surprise at the end of this post.

Gecko and blue duiker

You can read about the beautiful Dassie Trail along the Nahoon River here.

  • Morgan Bay, East London (March 2023):

Morgan Bay is probably more famous for its spectacular sunrises than animals. But we did come across a herd of goats that enjoyed the succulent leaves of ‘spekbome’ (Portulacaria afra) at a resident’s garden.

Goats in a garden

And there was no shortage of cows. We ran into them everywhere during our weekend – along the river, in the road and even on the grass of the hotel.

Cows everywhere

A cow feasts on the hotel’s lovely green lawn

You can read about that amazing weekend at Morgan Bay here and here.

  • East London Aquarium (April 2023)

Of course, you are guaranteed to see animals at an aquarium. We loved our visit to East London’s small aquarium and had the opportunity to see them feed the seals, penguins and pelicans.

Colourful fish

Brown shy shark

Pelican and seals

Turtles

Perky penguins

Penguin shenanigans

You can read about our day at the East London Aquarium here.

  • East London Show (April 2023):

We quickly learned that the East London Show’s main attraction is its horses. We did see a large ‘kraal’ with cattle to be auctioned, but in the end, it was the elegant horses and their jockeys that stole our hearts.

Cattle up for auction

Show riding

Show jumping

You can read about the East London Show here.

  • Areena Riverside Resort, East London (May 2023):

At Areena Riverside Resort we simply stayed among the animals. There were lots of bunnies, a tame antelope and noisy ducks. We even saw a puppy enjoying a walk along the river as his owner kept a watchful eye on him.

We saw so many bunnies

Antelope and ducks

Friendly puppy

But we also had the opportunity to walk among wild animals. This was probably one of our animal highlights of the year.

South African Blesbok and Wildebeest

Beautiful zebras

Giraffe, the tallest land mammal

Ostrich and emus

You can read about our lovely weekend at Areena Riverside Resort here.

  • Hogsback (June 2023):

Hogsback was a weekend of hiking surrounded by beautiful forests, waterfalls and high trees. Still, we did run into a few animals. There were chickens around our cottage and some baboons who came to visit the farm where we stayed. And we met two friendly dogs on a shop porch.

Chicken and baboons

Dogs looking for a spot of sun on a cold morning

You can read about the picturesque village of Hogsback here and here.

  • Langebaan visit (August 2023):

In August we visited our hometown, Langebaan after an absence of eight months. It was great to be back home and we enjoyed our strolls in the town and along the lagoon.

Seagulls are a familiar sight at the lagoon, but the sheep in the garden was a surprise

The small ‘grys duikertjie’ (grey duiker/bush duiker)

As always, we enjoyed a drive through the West Coast National Park and Postberg Nature Reserve. We could see the ‘dassies’ (rock hyraxes) way down on a rock, basking in the sun.

‘Dassies’ (rock hyraxes) stretched out on rock

We were fortunate to see the bigger animals of the park grazing between the spectacular spring wildflowers.

Mountain zebras and ostriches

Bontebokke

You can read about our visit to Langebaan on the West Coast here, here, here, here and here.

  • Road trip from Langebaan to East London (September 2023):

After our Langebaan visit, we drove 1,100km/700miles back to East London. On this trip it was more about the scenery, but we still spotted a big herd of cattle in the village of Colchester. The picture of the clouds, green grass and many cows made this one of my favourite photos on this trip.

Cows at Colchester

You can read about our long road trip here and here.

  • Baviaanskloof (September 2023):

Our adventurous trip to the Baviaanskloof offered spectacular hiking opportunities and a whole lot of wet weather. I guess there are many animals in this part of our country, but that even they were hiding from the rain that broke the 8-year drought.

Gecko and sheep on a farm

One of the Uitspan Guest Farm dogs visited us at our cottage

On our drive through Prince Alfred’s Pass, we saw these horses and sheep sought shelter from the rain

You can read about our long weekend in the Baviaanskloof here, here, here, here, here and here.

  • Haga Haga, East London (October 2023):

Another stormy weekend awaited us at the beautiful coastal village of Haga Haga. Except for a lot of rain, we also noticed a lone antelope enjoying green leaves from a tree in the middle of town.

Antelope in the town of Haga Haga

You can read about our wet weekend in Haga Haga here.

  • Naturwanderweg, Emerald Vale Brewery, East London (December 2023):

On a very short hike on this brewery farm, we found ourselves back in nature. While keeping an eye on the weather and an approaching thunderstorm, we negotiated our way around a few cows.

Cows on the Naturwanderweg

You can read about the short Naturwanderweg trail here.

And as promised, the elusive ‘dassies’ (rock hyraxes) eventually made their appearance at Berto’s office (of all places). He saw them from his office window and quickly took a few photos with his cellphone. It was great to see the mother with her little ones basking in the early morning sun.

Mother and her babies

I’m also happy to report that we now have our own ‘animal’ in the house. After our first visit to Nanaga Farm Stall, I had my eye on a soft toy in the shop’s window. On our second visit in September, Berto bought the little lamb for me.

Meet Nana, the lamb from Nanaga Farm Stall

We hope you enjoyed our animal edition of 2023. We will definitely try to add more animals to this list next year.