Night Adventures in the Bush
Day time on a safari start with an early morning game drive followed by a lazy afternoon relaxing by the pool or in your comfortable suit. Guided game drives during the mornings are filled with exciting sightings of Elephants, Kudu, Gemsbok and Giraffe as well as wonderful bird watching, many of which are active during the day and sleep at night.
An evening game drive presents a whole new world of African wildlife to explore. Wrapping up warmly, as it can get chilly on the back of a game drive vehicle, the anticipation mounts as you prepare to head off for the evenings game drive.
Your experienced guide starts up the vehicle and off you go, heading away from your luxury safari lodge. The sky is slowly changing from blue to lilac to orange to red and as evening begins to fall and you begin to feel a sense of excitement, what incredible sightings will you behold this night?
After you have been driving for a fair while the guide slowly pulls the vehicle off to the side of the road and invites you to disembark and stretch your legs. It is sun downers time and as you sip of your ice cold beer or glass of delicious local wine you have a chance to take in your surroundings, watching the sun disappear on the horizon.
As it gets darker your guide hands out some spot lights which you can use to track the animals with. You learn how to slowly scan the trees and shrubs around you and to pick out the shiny white reflections from the light on the animals eyes.
As the vehicle pulls over, your guide explains that the light should not be shone directly into the animals eyes as you might give it night blindness, and asks you to carefully point the light just below or to the side of the animal.
The animal in you have sighted in the tree is a African Bush Baby and while you watch it carefully your knowledge guide teaches you some interesting facts about the animal. Moving on down the road you are excited to hear a rustle near the vehicle, a Porcupine with its long black and white quills scuttles past.
During the evening Hippos come out of the water to feed on the grasses along the river bank and as your game vehicle pulls up to watch you find yourself amazed by the sheer size of these creatures, all you have previously seen of them is their inquisitive eyes peering out from the water during the day.
Other animals you may see while on your evening adventure include Aardvark, Honey Badgers, Caracal and a variety of different birds including Owls and Nightjars.During the hot sunny days you may have seen Lion or Leopard during your game drive, but they are usually lying lazily under the shade of a tree, trying to escape from the heat of the day.
But at night, when it is cooler, they become active, hunting for their prey or heading down to the nearby waterhole for a drink of water. If you are going to be lucky enough to see a kill, an evening game drive is when it is most likely to happen.
After a few hours out in the bush, and a number of incredibly exciting sightings, you return to your safari lodge, where you are served a delicious gourmet meal and can spend the rest of the evening relaxing under the stars, chatting to your fellow safari goers.
