What a game drive day actually looks like, hour by hour

Safari brochures show you the animals. They rarely show you the shape of the day, which is what you will actually experience for a week.

05:45 — wake

Earlier than you would like and non-negotiable. Coffee is brought to the tent or waiting in the mess. It is cold at this hour in the highlands and warm on the plains.

06:15 — out

Gates open at first light and the first ninety minutes are the best of the day. Predators are still active, the light is good, and the roads are empty. This is the single reason the early start exists, and it is why we push back on itineraries that involve long transfers in the morning.

06:15 to 09:30 — the morning drive

Slow driving with the roof up, stopping constantly. Your guide is working the radio, reading tracks, and watching other vehicles at distance. Most of the significant sightings of the trip will happen in this window.

Expect to cover less ground than you imagine. Twenty kilometres in three hours is a good morning.

09:30 — breakfast

Either back at camp, or a bush breakfast laid out somewhere with a view. The bush version is better and we arrange it where the park allows.

The day has two good halves and a long flat middle. Plan the middle deliberately.

10:30 to 15:30 — the middle

The animals lie down and so, generally, do people. Depending on the itinerary this is either a return to camp for lunch and a rest, or a long transfer day between parks.

This is the part of the day that decides whether a safari feels restful or exhausting. A trip with four camp changes spends this window in a vehicle every day. A trip with two spends it in a hammock.

Some guests go out through the middle. Occasionally it pays — a leopard in a tree does not care about the hour — but usually it is hot, dusty and quiet.

15:30 to 18:30 — the afternoon drive

Second good window. Animals move again as the heat drops, the light turns, and the plains go gold. Predators begin hunting toward dusk.

Parks close at sunset and you must be out or back at camp by then. Private concessions allow night drives; national parks do not.

19:30 — dinner

Three courses, usually outdoors if the weather allows, often around a fire. Camps are quiet and people go to bed early because the next wake-up is at 05:45.

What nobody tells you

There is a lot of driving and a lot of waiting. You will spend forty minutes watching a lion sleep. This is normal and it is, oddly, the part people remember — the stillness rather than the action.

Bring a book, a proper camera if you have one, and lower your expectations about wifi. Take the middle of the day seriously when you plan, because it is a third of your trip.