Game Drives

The reason you come is to see the animals. They are habituated to the open landrovers and ignore you so long as you do not break the outline of the vehicle. Standing up or getting out rings the dinner bell for the predators. So long as you stay in the landrover the animals allow you to get quite close=touching distance in some cases=a herd of elephants-and within 6 or 8 feet in the case of lions. Leopards are more like ten feet, and the antelope are skittish. You take a morning drive at about 5:30 unil about 10:00, with a tea break. In SA the driver is armed with a large caliber rifle, and the tracker, sitting like an off center hood ornament on the front of the car is not armed. Before dismounting for the tea break they check the area for predators. Bad form to have your guests eaten.

The guides and trackers are amazing-full of knowledge about where to find the animals, and everything about the animals themselves. We were a little intimadated at first to look at a pride of lions from about 8 feet away. Elephants, in a herd, surround the car and continue with their forest renovation-eating trees, upending them to get at the roots, etc. The tracker will see someing on the ground, jump off and disappear into the bush. Later he will return and guide us to the next animal. Great fun.

The morning drive ends back at camp with a brunch, and then a nap to prepare for the afternoon drive. This is much like the morning one except for the "Sundowner". This consists of gin and tonic, or whatever else you want, while you observe the African sun set over the bush. You then set out for a hour or two of driving in the dark with the tracker using a spotlight to find animals. After the drive you hit the showers and prepre for the evcning meal. Then to bed because it starts all over the next day.