Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Number of days on Safari

I have always spent 21-28 days in Africa to maximize the experience but also the amount of time on a plane is a beating to me. Now I am rethinking my stance on this and wonder if others are doing it as well? I like to hunt buffalo and with kids in collage and my hectic work world I cannot get awhile for a normal for me safari any time soon. I like Africa and if I could only hunt one animal in Africa it would be buffalo. I am contemplating a 5 day buffalo hunt and I admit that getting away from work for a week to go to Africa again and hunt buffalo excites me more than I would have thought.
I am the only crazy one to think about taking advantage of opportunities to do this now?
For me getting to go to Africa for a week is an option I will consider over waiting another 3 years and hope things in Africa are where I can go do a normal hunt then.

I never pass an opportunity to go.

Compromise and make it seven days. Try to schedule your trip over a holiday like July 4th or Labor day. That way it's only one extra day away from the office. If all you can do is five days do it. Five days in Africa certainly beats five days at work.

You only live once....go

I've done trips as short as 6 hunting days and as long as 21 hunting days.

For me, unless it is a specialized hunt, 9 days seems to be the best for me from my experience.

Just because of travel time and jet lag, my preference would be to hunt for a week with the weekend before and after for travel.

donsm70

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.

Very wise words. And to add to that there is the additional pressure to shoot a buffalo early, it takes me a couple of days and stalks to really learn the PH (and vice versa), and everything would be rushed in general, all of which distract from the experience. For me hunting is far more than shooting an animal, especially in Africa. Figure out a way to hunt at least 7 or 8 days with an extra day or so in town prior to the hunt.

I would much rather do frequent sprints than occasional marathons.

That 5 day buffalo hunt is an attractive diversion!

A 31 day hunt for leopard, cape buff and ALL manor of available plains game, coupled with Wifeys chartered shopping trips to and fro would be heaven and hell all on the same wonderfully exhausting trip.

JJ hit the nail on the head, at least for most of us. I generally prefer 14 days, as by that time I've had plenty of fun and am starting to get just enough homesick not to regret heading back.

I've done safaris ranging from 7 days to a month, and prefer something in the 2-week range. My first was one of the 7-day trips, and while it worked out OK, as Jim said, I wasn't really right until a couple days in, even after spending the night in Joburg on arrival. Did another 7-day safari for bird-shooting in 2013, which was also OK.

A month was fun, but too long for me. This was before cell phones could be used to call the U.S., but I was e-mailing my wife every day or two, and she's used to me being gone for a while now and then. However, one of the other guys had rented a satellite phone, and kept insisting I use it to phone home. About halfway through the month I caved. When she answered I said, "This is your husband." She immediately yelped, "WHAT'S WRONG!?" Had to talk for several minutes just for her to calm down. Haven't made that mistake again.

Did try a 5-day safari once, a cull hunt in South Africa. My companions and I arrived in Joburg, then almost immediately flew to Kimberley, where the PH's picked us up and drove three hours to the lodge. Got in close to midnight, dragging severely, and got a good night's sleep even though it was the "wrong" time, and wasn't too lagged the next day.

But during the 5 days the head PH (who owned the company) and I hit it off so well he invited me to stay for another week at his home, 200 miles away, and do some more hunting around there. He'd just started operating in South Africa after spending his life in Zimbabwe, and didn't have anything else scheduled. I e-mail my wife and tell her not to expect me for another week. She was fine with it, especially since I didn't phone.

I'm one of those lucky people who sleeps easily on planes, and in fact am often snoring even before take-off here in Montana. But my wife isn't, and the Ambien Jim suggested works very well for her.

I like 12-14 days like these other guys...
JBs story reminded me of a trip I took ti Zim in 2000. No cell phones, no SAT phones, no computer...but there was a FAX machine. Got into a prolonged dust-up with a leopard on day one...and I just KNEW the story would work its way home before I did ( 17 days later) so I FAXed my wife and told her, regardless of what you may hear, no one got hurt.
Sure enough the story got home better than a week before me, and it had lost nothing in the telling!

flying to AK is not nearly as bad as Africa

We do it every fall.

There is no way we'd not go for a full two weeks(all the vacation we are allowed)

The only way, is if it was an emergency run for something other than pleasure.

Pleasure vs the plane ride etc.... calls for two weeks.

There isn't a way I'd fly there for a 5 day hunt and turn around unless there was a really valid reason.

I was just wondering if any one was as crazy as me for considering this. I understand the ramifications as I have been there multiple times. It's an old friend that I would love to make a couple of stalks on some buffalo with him while time allows. I would have to wait at least 3 years to do a proper safari and by then as all things Africa goes the situation may not allow for us to do that safari together. Like I said I would have never considered it before but getting away for a few days could be a nice but tiring break. I would probably arrive a couple of days early and stay a day or two after but in the end I am basically doing a 5 day hunt. I have never had an issue with finding a buffalo if I need to shoot one so I'm not worried if I get one or not. The excuse to drag a double around for a week instead of working appeals to me right now. I guess my real world has gotten too far out on the edge for me to consider a break like this to get away from it.

Well, if you are going early and staying late, its not a 5 day flip.

But there are still reasons I'd hop a plane to AK in an instant, if I had enough vacation, to help a friend on a short hunt!

Life is short, you have to decide, but in general I try not to do short ones when travel takes time... a day to fly to AK more or less by the time we are done, another day to drive to where we are going, and then recover...
I remember falling asleep in a tent in the afternoon, once.. after a long flight and a long drive. Was going to rest.. but was told moose are all around camp, GO... I did.. got camp set up, it drizzled around 3pm... I woke up before daylight the next morning.

Gotta get enough rest at our age. LOL. And I shoudl say that I generally take something to make me sleep when we board the plane both times... so that I'm sleeping most of the way...if not, leg cramps get me.

Jim, that is excellent advice. I did that, more or less, on my 2015 safari. Ten days, with Ambien on the plane over and back, 13 days total.

I'd do it. I'll sleep when I get home.