Jingle Bells And No Fireworks Under The Acacia

It is difficult enough for most people to decide what to wear on safari, let alone when the Christmas days are going to be part of their trip. But I can tell you now already that you might as well leave that tuxedo at home.
Don’t expect pine trees with artificial snow at your accommodation. If any, you will most likely run into an acacia twig full of silver and red shiny decoration: The African bush is not the place to be if you are a big Christmas fan and there are no red nosed impalas either.
The southern hemisphere is celebrating summer when we are all sitting inside with the hearth burning and the snow (hopefully) falling outside. Most of us will have bought a ‘cut-down tree’ which will start to protest after 10 days by dropping its needles on the carpet, followed by a mass usage of electricity to vacuum clean those away. Not very eco-friendly is it?
The good news for people that are going to the bush to escape all the commerce and the hocus pocus around Christmas is that Christmas on an African safari is just like any other day in the wilderness. Everybody will wish you ‘merry Christmas’ but the feeling is simply not there and it might as well be Easter or any other day of the year for that matter.
So my advice is not to pack too much for that night of the 24^th as you might feel a little bit overdressed between the other safari lovers that are still wearing their jeans and kaki’s.

New Years Eve is not going to be that much different from  Christmas in the bush. Some guests will dress up, but if you don’t feel like it you don’t have to be worried that you will be the only one just dressing normal. Most of the times safari guests will not even make it till 24.00 as game drives on the 1^st of January normally commence very early. And a game drive is always more important than a New Year’s celebration. If you rather feel like partying than making the next day’s  game drive, make sure the staff will not by mistake give you a wake-up call at 05.30.

If you happen to go on safari during Christmas 2009 I wish you already a happy trip and I hope  you will let me know what you intend to wear. (Sending a picture afterwards would even be better!)

I am wishing all the readers and their families a very happy festive season and especially a healthy 2010!

Last but not least I would like your comment on the below video. Who are really the monkeys in this footage?? The chimp at the end has been reading the PlanYourSafari blog as well since he knows what is on number one of  ‘10 things not to wear on a safari‘.