A safari at night is a thrilling and enlightening adventure, offering a unique layer of excitement. With limited vision, your remaining senses are piqued, cloaked as you are in the pitch-black night. Your guide uses a powerful spotlight, sweeping the beam over the surrounding bush, searching for the glint of an eye in the darkness.
The ‘Night Game Drives’ are organised in Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park, which are both ideal locations due to their diverse ecosystems. With the lake, the rift valley cliffs, ground water forest, Ngorongoro highlands, and the dry Tarangire system all close by, the region is a melting pot for all various kinds of animals and vegetation.
When out on a ‘Night game drive’, keep an eye out for genets, civet cats, porcupines, and enormous hippos grazing under shady trees and if you are lucky you might spot a lion or leopard!
Experience a completely different world
Not only do night game drives allow you to observe nocturnal animals such as porcupines, civet cats, and aardvarks, they are also a fantastic way to see nocturnal predators and herbivores in their element. Big cats such as leopards and lions do much of their hunting after dark, while hippopotamus trade their watery homes for grazing out on the plains.
Where to experience a night game drive
Night game drives are an optional add-on that is conducted by third-party tour operators in specific parks. In Tanzania, night-game drives can be arranged at Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park. Night game drives are not available in the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Description of the Night Gamedrive in Lake Manyara / Tarangire
At 8 p.m., after the sun has set and evening has fallen, the night game drive will begin.
The night game drive offers a unique and exciting opportunity to encounter nocturnal animals that are in hiding during daytime. In total darkness, with only the light of the stars and the headlights of the safari vehicle lighting up the darkness, you will explore the bush….
You will be accompanied by an experienced guide who will take you to explore the wilderness at night. The guide will know how to identify different nocturnal animal sounds and will be able to tell you all about the local flora and fauna.
Are those a pair of eyes that light up in the darkness? Who knows what animals you will encounter tonight….
You will return to the park entrance or accommodation around 10:30 pm.
Important: The night game drive in Tarangire is only possible if staying overnight in accommodation in the national park.
