I hunted Namibia end of December and PH said it was 117f. No problem other than pulled a light jacket over long sleeve shirt due to the physical ache of the sun on my arms and shoulders. Oddly shorts weren't a problem. Locally we get at least 2 weeks of 95-100f with 90%+ humidity. And that is more debilitating than what I experienced there.
I work outside, wear shorts at a horse farm.
But older and not as fit as I was. I can fix the fit part. I use NUUN to keep going when it's tough. Stuff works.
Hearing late dry season good "if you can take the heat."
Anyone with similar climate experience chime in please with numbers I can relate to?
Thanks, Scott

We hunted Zimbabwe many years during these months.

Hot, but, for us at least it is bearable.

Even now we hunt in October every year, missing last year.

And hoping to do it again this year.

I have done November and it was warm, and it did not cool off at night and made sleeping in the tent set up just ok. Just make sure that you are drinking a lot of water and you should be good.

Dress for the duration, wear long sleeve under shirt then put on a long sleeve shirt. You should find that this is cooler and the bugger of the fly's did not bite me through such a set up.

My Definition of warm is up to 116 degrees above that it can get toasty. When you hit the 120+ degrees it depends on if there is a breeze or not. When I was working where it got to 118 to 120 by noon I realized that At 100 degrees you will find you need a lite jacket, because you are chilly/cool.

In Chete, Zimbabwe, it got so hot at night we could not sleep

quote:

In Chete, Zimbabwe, it got so hot at night we could not sleep

We hunted at Chete twice in late October with Lou Hallamore, it was so hot the only way my wife could sleep was to soak a towel in the shower and cover herself with it, had to repeat several times. I was surprised when she wanted to return for a second hunt.

One evening I could not sleep at all.

I heard some noise, and looked out of the window on side - not sure if you had the smell huts, but ours had one side completely open.

I could see elephants feed to the side less than 50 yards away.

Watched them for quite a while, then they got out of sight.

I was waking up about 4 AM daily, well before the sun would come up. Somedays I would sit on the front deck just watching what was on going in camp. Other morning I would walk to the camp fire area and watch the elephants and Cape buffalo coming in to drink.

We had a nightly leopard show up at the skinning shed, maybe 40 yards from my tent, I never saw the leopard, however the trackers were sure full of stories about it.

One evening a lion came into camp and slept under the tent of the guy who was hunting leopard & lion. The guy was snoring so loud that it woke me up, I never saw the lion, however the track were quite viable. Our night watch person was quite surprised. He was easy to spot at night while i was sitting on the front porch. I scared the life out of the guy one morning as he was walking by my tent. He was making his rounds and never saw me, about jumped out of his shoes when I called him by name.

I've hunted Zim several times in Oct, Nov, and once in Dec. Hot doesn't begin to describe it, but being a Texas fella, I prefer it to cold any day.

Some tips:

Frog Toggs for sleeping at night. Wet it and place on your bare chest.
Get one of the little battery powered fans for sleeping at night as well.
Get a couple those cooling cloths to wet and put around your neck during the day. Keep one on your neck and the other in the cooler on the truck. Swap them out each time you start out from the truck.
Get a couple cans of powdered GaterAid to mix in with your water. It's amazing how much this one item can help.
I found on my 2013 Dec ele bull hunt, that taking a large piece of ice out of the cooler and placing in on the top of my head, under the cap, allowed it to melt over a couple of hours and drip cold water.

Temps on that hunt were 130F and over a bit. Showering every day, I never touched the hot water control.

Late October can be blistering hot.



This was our camp thermometer one year in the Caprivi.

The question is very much where in Africa you would be hunting.

In Southern Africa the western areas like Namibia for example is is very much semi-desert and the nights are pleasant as it cools down after sunset.

In the higher rainfall areas like Zim, Moz and NE South Africa the daytime temps are similiar to Namibia but the nights are warmer and more humid, up to a point where you have difficulty sleeping and get up to shower hourly.

In the Lowveld I experienced a night where the temparature was 100F at 00:30. Elevation also has got a lot to do with night temps and anything approaching 2500ft ASL is good news.

The old people were very clever, if you look at the position of the old missionary stations they were situated on the higher ground, even if only by a couple hundred of feet to get away from the heat and the malaria. Many years ago I worked in a hospital that was built by missionaries and it was quite a bit cooler than our farm 25 miles away; difference in elevation probably 300ft.

It is NEVER too hot too hunt.

Gonarezhou one year in November...hotter then hell ( 120+ ) but nights cooled of nicely

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
One evening I could not sleep at all.

I heard some noise, and looked out of the window on side - not sure if you had the smell huts, but ours had one side completely open.

I could see elephants feed to the side less than 50 yards away.

Watched them for quite a while, then they got out of sight.

Also at Chete, we had a small elephant and two hippo’s feeding on grass right beside our chalet, first night it scared my wife half to death.

I love going to Africa when it's hot.Going back to camp for a mazoa juice drink on ice or a afternoon siesta out in the bush, on the bare ground, underneath some shade.The hottest it ever got for me was in Moz. near Tete.

The worst heat I’ve been in was the Luangwa valley and in Cameroon.

I think I’ve learned how to deal with it better more than it hasn’t been “bad”.

The big difference in dealing with heat here vs. over there is here you can get in A/C if you must. There, it’s mostly not possible. Here, I can handle pretty much everything if I can sleep cool- there, that’s not the case.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

Some tips:

Frog Toggs for sleeping at night. Wet it and place on your bare chest.
Get one of the little battery powered fans for sleeping at night as well.
Get a couple those cooling cloths to wet and put around your neck during the day. Keep one on your neck and the other in the cooler on the truck. Swap them out each time you start out from the truck.
Get a couple cans of powdered GaterAid to mix in with your water. It's amazing how much this one item can help.
I found on my 2013 Dec ele bull hunt, that taking a large piece of ice out of the cooler and placing in on the top of my head, under the cap, allowed it to melt over a couple of hours and drip cold water.

. . . lots of wisdom in those suggestions.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

Some tips:

Frog Toggs for sleeping at night. Wet it and place on your bare chest.
Get one of the little battery powered fans for sleeping at night as well.
Get a couple those cooling cloths to wet and put around your neck during the day. Keep one on your neck and the other in the cooler on the truck. Swap them out each time you start out from the truck.
Get a couple cans of powdered GaterAid to mix in with your water. It's amazing how much this one item can help.
I found on my 2013 Dec ele bull hunt, that taking a large piece of ice out of the cooler and placing in on the top of my head, under the cap, allowed it to melt over a couple of hours and drip cold water.

. . . lots of wisdom in those suggestions.

Most of those lessons I learned from you Mike.

Moz in Nov 2019

Far more pleasant than offshore fishing.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:


Moz in Nov 2019

Far more pleasant than offshore fishing.

Mike

The dashboard in Doug's truck. Nov. 2020 115 the first three days and 120 on the fourth. I do not think I would ever hunt Africa in November again.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Namibia should be very low humidity even with the heat. So as long as you drink enough water and electrolytes you should be fine. The added bonus is that after it gets dark it should cool off as well so it makes sleeping easier.

That’s true EXCEPT IN THE CAPRIVI. With all the rivers( Chobe, Kavango, Zambezi), it’s hot as hell. Mike and Todd’s advice above is spot on. Wet microfiber towels at night, battery fans( take a lot of batteries), electrolyte tabs make a huge difference. The same advice applies to any hunt around Lake Karina In Zim. Bottom line- most any place in Southern Africa is hot in October-November and a lot of them DONT cool down much at night.

It all boils down to how you can tolerate heat.

Walter has all the gadgets Todd mentions - including a battery operated fan with water to cool him.

He is the one who hardly ever walks more than 100 yards!

I follow a minimalist sort of thing.

I carry my rifle, a small camera in my pocket, some hard boiled sweets and chewing gum.

That is it.

No water, no binoculars, nothing.

I do not drink while on the move - even all day. I only drink when we stop for lunch or back at camp.

Normally, our guests finish whatever water we have carried by 9 o'clock anyway!

But, I am used to the heat.

One night in Tanzania it got so hot I was awake at 3.

Decided to go to the mess tent and get a cold bottle of Coke.

Outside my tent on the path, saw the tracks of lions walking in the same direction.

I guessed they must have already passed a long time ago, but I got back to the tent and took my rifle with me, went and got my Coke.

Enjoyed a cold drink while waiting for the light to come.

By November in Zambia, we would have experienced the first rains which cools things down.

I've been to Namibia a couple times in November, and it is "tolerable" at 90 + everyday.

Limpopo SA was better, and I'd b guess the Southern part(E Cape) should be fine.

In Nov 2015 I spent 16 days visiting 3 different camps in the Cape. We Froze! Seriously I wore a warm coat at least part of every day except one. It was overcast, windy and cool most days.

Mark

I like hunting when it's hot, but made a bad mistake once leaving the gari without water thinking we wouldn't be gone long. Was almost a costly mistake.

Now, in hot weather, before I leave the car, I chug a liter of water and slosh away. And, one of the trackers is given a backpack of water. Never had a problem since.

I hunted in Zimbabwe one year at the end of October into early November. They call November 'suicide month'. It was HOT, the snakes were out moving around (cobras and mambas),along with other nasty stuff. We slept with the windows wide open and the mosquito nets down. It was pretty damn stupid sleeping with the windows rolled wide open, come to think of it now.

That year in the Caprivi, it was between 117 and 128 degrees Fahrenheit every bloody day.

It was so dry that we did not feel how much we were dehydrating in the sun. We sweat, but it instantly evaporated. And I mean instantly. We had to be conscious of the need to drink water at regular intervals all day long.

Of course, our trackers were entirely immune. To this day, I cannot imagine how they could survive an entire day in the blistering sun without even taking one sip of water.

They carried it for us, but never took a drink for themselves.

At night, it would cool down into the high 90s.

In those pre-high-tech days, the only way we could sleep was by taking a wet towel to bed.

All of that said, I did kill a good bull elephant on that trip, and I am here today to tell the story, so it was well worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
That year in the Caprivi, it was between 117 and 128 degrees Fahrenheit every bloody day.

It was so dry that we did not feel how much we were dehydrating in the sun. We sweat, but it instantly evaporated. And I mean instantly. We had to be conscious of the need to drink water at regular intervals all day long.

Of course, our trackers were entirely immune. To this day, I cannot imagine how they could survive an entire day in the blistering sun without even taking one sip of water.

They carried it for us, but never took a drink for themselves.

At night, it would cool down into the high 90s.

In those pre-high-tech days, the only way we could sleep was by taking a wet towel to bed.

All of that said, I did kill a good bull elephant on that trip, and I am here today to tell the story, so it was well worth it.

The heat did you well Mike and that's a beauty

I have gone many times in those insanely hot times. I remember a reading of 128F. Actually, I prefer that time of the year.

My tricks:

1- I bring small individual serving bags of powdered G-2 (low calorie Gatorade). I bring enough for 6 a day.

2- I drink water or the G-2 often.

3-I always make sure that I hydrate heavily at night before going to bed.

4- I bring several sizes of Frogg Toggs chilly pads. I place one on my chest at minimum. I may put them on my legs, forehead and/or neck. They feel like ice.

5- I have a towel that I had altered to put on the seat behind me in the truck. Stops a lot of sweating from contact with the vinyl.

5- wear a broad brim hat.

Never tried the towel on the gari seat, but agree with Larry on everything else. You simply can't drink too much. One PH told me that if your urine has any yellow color at all, you aren't drinking enough, and I know from experience, if you quit urinating, you are in trouble.

Broad brimmed hat is a necessity and those Frog Tog chilly towels are simply amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Never tried the towel on the gari seat, but agree with Larry on everything else. You simply can't drink too much. One PH told me that if your urine has any yellow color at all, you aren't drinking enough, and I know from experience, if you quit urinating, you are in trouble.

Broad brimmed hat is a necessity and those Frog Tog chilly towels are simply amazing.

Get up extra early and get to where you want to be. Avoid midday and if you get a headache or fever then stop what you are doing and get the truck. Too many people push themselves too hard.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Never tried the towel on the gari seat, but agree with Larry on everything else. You simply can't drink too much. One PH told me that if your urine has any yellow color at all, you aren't drinking enough, and I know from experience, if you quit urinating, you are in trouble.

Broad brimmed hat is a necessity and those Frog Tog chilly towels are simply amazing.

I sweat a lot when my back is on vinyl. I got severe heat rash over my entire back once. Thus the towel.

quote:

I sweat a lot when my back is on vinyl. I got severe heat rash over my entire back once. Thus the towel.

Larry:

You should propose/educate your PH to fit seat covers on the factory-issue vinyl ones on cruisers. I have found the heavy-duty khaki cloth ones (tailored to fit) as the most suited as they can also be washed at intervals and are long lasting.

Andrew,

You are absolutely right about pushing it too hard. The day I got in trouble we left the gari to collect a bush pig. Easy-Peasy. They went up a steep hill, we would call it a mountain in Texas.
Didn't plan to be gone long and didn't take water.
It was super hot. At the end, they were helping me down on my rubber legs. I was not feeling well at all. I drank over a gallon of water with rehydration salts before I could even pee. Not something I'd ever want to reexperience.

From then on, I always carry plenty of water and drink a lot.