Guides are programmed to love early mornings as it is the best time for game viewing.   It is the time of day when you get to possibly see both your nocturnal animals (who are heading back home) and the diurnal animals who wake up with sunrise to start their busy day.  Patrick spent 6 weeks on tour recently doing a Namibia Botswana accommodated tour followed by the exciting Trade Route tour.  He recounts his experience towards the end of the Trade Route tour and their great early morning game drive.

On the Trade Route tour, our last morning game drive out of Letaba camp in the Kruger National Park was one of those moments where everyone is thrilled that I woke them up early for a game drive.

After an early breakfast consisting of cereals, oats, bread, jam, cold meats, coffee and much more we packed up our camp into our “red elephant” (tour truck) and headed out of the gate. Nobody in our group even thought of being surprised on this game drive, as we have been traveling for the past 6 weeks as a happy group and in that time have seen many different situations in Etosha National Park, the Okavango delta, Chobe River and South Luangwa National Park.

What made this morning so special is that about 3 km out of the camp gate we came to a Hyena Den with roughly 7 Hyenas chillaxing (Chilling and Relaxing) besides the Den. That was already lucky to see, but then 3 Wild Dogs come down the road and gave us a 5 min chase with the Hyena all along the road towards Letaba, now that was special!  It was not a real fight for life, it seemed more like a game.

What an incredible way to end a tour with hyena and wild dog.  It is always worth getting up early for a game drive!