conditions in Sabi Sands in November

Can be very hot (but still a bit cold in the early mornings; you need a light jacket or fleece probably) nad the rains are about to start, but it's impossible to tell when. The vegetation will likely still be brown and "short", though, so animal viewing should still be optimum.

Typically you go out on the second drive in the afternoon when it's light, and usually halfway through stop for sundowners and appetizers at sunset. Then do the rest of the drive in the dark.

BRILLIANT RM!!!
I've been griping here for two months about the short daylight afternoon game drive. Not once did it occur to me (or anyone else) that moving my safari from Sep to Nov would give more daylight time on that drive!!! You're a genius!!! BTW, the typical Sabi Sand safari camp starts the pm game drive at 4pm for "summer season hours".

So to know how much time difference I found a site from which you can get sunrise and sunset times world wide. Here for Johannesburg- -
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=111&month=9&year=2009&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1
It shows that for Sep 1 the sunset was at 5:56pm and for Nov 1 the sunset was at 6:25pm. Another 29 mins of daylight, now that is worth having on that pm game drive.

The other question is weather in November and I don't have any feel for that. Since 2005 I have been in Sabi Sand (and Kruger) camps in only Sep. But am very tempted to do safari in July for likely better weather. I had a recent thread here on this. Hope we get a lot of other's comments on November.

regards - tom

The weather in Nov seems to get over 100 and it can be very muggy. I agree with Leslie also, that you still get a bit of a night drive, however you may also get more daylight too. Personally I would not want to risk the higher chance of rains to be there in November. My favorite months are Aug and Sept.

Here is a temp/rain chart for the Sabi Sands area.

http://www.places.co.za/html/temperaturegr.html

Mike

As I am going at the end of this week, for two weeks, I will let you know how November works out I am glad to get the longer daylight hours. Also, for a birder (like me , November is definitely the best month for birding as the migrants will be there and everything is in breeding plumage, and also singing. I am a bit concerned about the rain potential, but rain has its upsides too--more green makes for nicer photography and dramatic skies/storms also can contribute. Hopefully grass will not yet be so high or thick as to effect game viewing too much. Over 100 and muggy sounds pretty bad though

I'll report back!

yeah jczinn, you leave Friday if I remember. You are going to Kruger, Nkorho and I don't recall what other camps. How are you getting to Nkorho, driving after Kruger? Anyway, I'm envious. If you could keep a few notes about the weather each day it would be interesting. And of course looking forward to your report and photos.

regards - tom

Tom (et al) if you recall, we hired a birding guide through Lawson's Birding and Wildlife tours http://www.lawsons.co.za/ In fact, so as not to hijack this thread perhaps I'll start another with the specifics so that if I get a chance I can post while away...

The game drive will likely go out later, so you'll have a similar amount of daylight. No problem with vegetation, if you are thinking visibility... grass only gets really tall in late Jan/Feb. Trees and shrubs will have healthy leaf cover, but you drive off road...

Thanks Carey.I see from weather reports that the rains have started this week in the greater kruger area and the temperatures have dropped.I am thinking of going to Sabi sands the first 2 weeks of next november.I dont want the rain to mess up my photography so while I will enjoy the extra daylight I want to stay dry.

RM - thanks, interesting that having some rain there now. Jczinn is there now, left Friday from USA. (She was going kookoo Thursday about flights because of the eastern storms). Will be good to have her report.

I have been rained on (light rain, not heavy) there in Sep the last two years. But even the light rain meant solid overcast skies for two-three days. I'd rather have a heavy rain for an hour then it blow on and have clear skies. I'm still thinking that May or July may be better time of year?? The sun may not be up as long as in Nov but the camps also start the game drives at 3:30pm so the afternoon daylight is as "good" as Sep.

regards - tom

November is a great time of the year to go on safari in the Sabi Sands! The birdlife is prolific, and chances are that animals like the impala would have given birth, and you can see plenty of little babies running around! Weather conditions can be rather hot and humid, and chances of some early summer rains are good. Game drives during summer months (like November) usually start later, as it's too hot to go out on drive any earlier than 3:30 or 4:00 p.m
Mike Karantonis

November sounds like a fine time, while there's a chance of some heavy rain, it's not a definite. And if it has rained, it has already this year, then the Aantelope drop their babies and you see a different knid of spectacle.

Zinn - Woodland Kingfishers first arrived Mala Mala on 11/8 this year and were singing a few days later.

hey we are back! Still recovering after the 20+ hour trip home but wanted to give a brief response re: November travel. Well as they say, you can never predict the weather. We had a FABULOUS trip but we were caught in that huge weather front that brought three days of pretty much SOLID rain while we were in Kruger. This definitely put a "damper" on photography, and while it didn't stop us from doing our daily drives may have reduced our sightings--pretty hard to say for sure. On the other hand, once that front moved through we had perfect weather for the rest of our trip and it was never unbearably hot. In Sabi Sands, we were at two lodges and both started their morning drives at 5:30 a.m.; the afternoon drive started at 4 p.m. at Elephant Plains and 4:30 p.m. at Nkorho. Although the 4 p.m. start does give more daylight hours, the later start did provide us with fantastic night sightings (including Genet, Civet, Bushbaby, Honey Badger, and lots of Owl sightings. Plus one amazing late night sighting of a pride of 8 lions in which we were the last and only vehicle present in total darkness--really amazing experience. Plus leopard(s) daily in Sabi Sands.

Still, even with the rain we amassed 310 bird species (approximate--still haven't done the final tabulation.) (Note this number also includes bird sightings from Jo'burg area, Nelspruit, Dullstroom, and Blyde River Canyon.) Once the weather broke we had clear blue skies with some fluffy clouds, perfect, and during the game drives very comfortable temperatures, never needed more than a lightweight shirt even early mornings. The rains also brought all the ponds to life with sounds of frogs; one night we were pelted on our drive with a huge termite hatch that brought every animal out (amazing sights of everything chasing termites, including eagles on the ground!) Also with all the frogs the storks and herons were having a field day! We saw many birds feeding young, and baby animals everywhere (many many tiny impala.)

Everything was already a lush green but grass was not too high for good viewing. In short, I think November is a great time to go, maybe the best time for birding.

hey jczinn - thought of you on occasion last couple weeks wondering how your Nov South Africa safari was going. Three days of rain is a lot but I've also had in Sep more than that many days of dark overcast skies which is almost as bad for photos.

Happy you had good birding, 310 sounds like a lot to me. I'll bet the impala calves are too cute for words!!!

Looking forward to hearing much more about your safari, your teaser above does -not- count as a full blown trip report

regards - tom

Hi Tom, I'm not sure I have it in me to do a full-blown trip report but I will try to at least give some of the highlights I have 60 GB's of photos to download and process, eventually there will be a photo trip report!

The three solid days of rain referred to Kruger--actually we pretty much had a full week of rain because our first days (two nights in Dullstroom and one in Blyde) were also rainy. But my understanding is that Dullstroom in summer rain is pretty much a given We also had dense fog, and just really awful conditions for photography, but the birds were still there. We were quite lucky actually that all the rain was in that first week and then we had great weather in Sabi Sand, as it would have been awful to have that weather in Sabi Sand!!

We had one nice day in Kruger, our last night/day in Satara and on our drive out of the park. Also cleared up for our night drive in Satara.

One interesting thing about the rain is that we saw a TON of raptors in Kruger, all perched because they couldn't fly. I have a lot of photos of very soggy looking eagles, and even a Verreaux's Eagle Owl.

great jczinn - no big hurry. I know what it's like with (almost) that many gig of photos. I have yet to start on my "This Was Our Safari" DVD of photos and videos from last Sep. I was hoping to have it done by Christmas, but now likely not. So, guess I'll have to give you also until after Christmas

A full week of rain is a bit much. Good, like you say, that Sabi Sand weather was nice.

regards - tom

Can I take this opportunity to ask a stupid question -- what do you wear for game drives when it rains? A rain jacket or poncho with a hood? Or a waterproof hat? Sounds miserable but I guess you make the best of it. Hopefully people don't try to use umbrellas.

Luckily for us there was no rain during our game drives in open vehicles (only while we were in Kruger, in a closed van.) However, we had ponchos with us and also I noted that in the game drive vehicles in both Elephant Plains and Nkorho they provided ponchos for use in the rain. We were told that during that really heavy rain that previous week the drives had to be cut short to about 1-1/2 hours instead of the usual three as it was really just too awful to continue. However, that type of continual, steady and hard rain seems highly unusual.

I can't imagine anyone would or could use umbrellas in the open vehicles, for one thing, they would likely blow away!

I guess I should look for ponchos. We will be in that region next October. Hoping to beat the major rains but obviously you never know.

Leslie, you're right about never knowing, but here's a link to get some idea: http://www.places.co.za/html/temperaturegr.html

I've been to the Kruger region in late Sept./early October, December and April, experiencing only one terrific afternoon downpour during the April visit. I don't think you need to buy a poncho. I bring along a hoodie for cool mornings or evenings and in case of light rain. If you're staying at private reserves they typically will have ponchos available to you.

Steve