Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Number of days on Safari

With hundreds of clients over the last 20 plus years, I have a pretty strong opinion on this. It comes from watching the struggle of the hunters that come for 5-7 days.

You're typically going to need 2 days to acclimate to the time change 100% ..... well maybe 80%!
Many guys travel the two days here, (6-9 hours lost in time change depending upon east or west coast departure). Then arrive with the urge to sleep during the day and be awake at night. Napping in the afternoon the first couple days is a bad idea, just prolongs the sleepless nights!

Ive watched them struggle with this for a couple days, now they are on day 4-5 of the trip. By Day 6-7 they are energetic and happy ready to rock and roll. But on the 7 day hunt they are leaving two days after that. They hunted 5 days and were 100% conscious for maybe 3 of them!

I've found that ten days of hunting, with 3 days of travel ( you make up the time going back to the states that you lost coming the South Africa. So it's a 2 day trip approx getting here and only one day approx going back.

With this schedule in mind you have a whole day when you return to the states to get your things together before your work commences. The time change when you're back in the states is an easy transition. Travel going west is always easier on the body then travel going east. Gaining those hours is much easier then losing them.

So when I try to work out the plans for a fellas trip, this is what we work towards. 2 weeks off from work, 10 days of hunting and three days of travel. If this cannot be managed then as close as you can get to this schedule the better off you will be.


Now with all this said, if you could only hunt for 5 days, or not go at all...... I would still opt for the 5 days! Speak with your family physician and he will supply with with the prescription for Ambien. This is the magic drug that will erase your time change jet lag problems. It will let you sleep better on the flight, and usually ( for most folks) gets you to sleep 7-8 hours your first night in Africa. Without this many of the visitors toss and turn the first couple nights not having proper sleep. This becomes an issue when trying to hunt hard during day.

When you sleep through the night the first night your hunting improves by 100% that first day, by the second day it's as if there was no time change at all. The time change is different for everyone. Many people struggle with it a lot. Some never seem to take notice. Most have never experienced a 9 hour time change from one day to the next. It if often a crippling situation for people to stay focused.