Endless Early Mornings

Africa is not a place to visit if you hate mornings. We've ended up waking as early as 4:30AM 3 or 4 days a week for nearly a month now.

In the game parks the reason is that morning and night game drives are the most likely to spot good animals. By 10 AM it has warmed up to the point that most animals are hiding in the shade until it cools down again in the evening. So inevitably we end up waking up before sunrise so that we can start driving as soon as they open the roads. If we go with a park vehicle on a guided drive they often leave an hour earlier so that you can catch the sunrise out in the bush.

In Nambia the problem is the brutal heat. In Sousousvlei, the famous sand dune park, the temperatures hit 55 degrees. In the shade. We are here in the Namibian fall so it is is a little cooler, like mid 40s. Still horribly hot though. By 11:00 the temperatures are intolerable and the heat haze and high sun have made photography pointless. So in the desert, like in the game park, there is a strong incentive to get up before the sun so that you can see things when the temperatures and light are at their best.