A sundowner is a drink you have as the sun goes down. On safari, late in the afternoon, your guide stops at a spot with a view, you step out, and with a glass in your hand you watch the sun sink behind the plains. The name says exactly what it is.
The word dates from the colonial era in East and southern Africa, where people closed the working day with a drink at sunset. The word stayed, and so did the habit. In East Africa it now belongs to a safari as much as the morning coffee.
Around six, as the light turns orange, your guide looks for a place where you can see a long way. A kopje in the Serengeti, a hill above the plains, a riverbank. The vehicle stops, and if it is safe there, you get out.
You choose what you drink. A gin and tonic is the classic, a beer works too, and a soft drink or water just as well. There is often something small to eat alongside.
You stay about half an hour. Then you drive back to camp, because in the national parks you have to be in by sunset.
On safari you spend the whole day looking and searching. The sundowner is the moment that stops. There is nothing more you need to see. You stand outside the vehicle, on the ground in the park for the first time that day, and you hear what is going on around you as it gets dark.
If you prefer wine, ask for wine from Tanzania. It comes from the area around Dodoma, and we pour it at our camp. There is more on it in our blog on Tanzanian wine.
A sundowner is not an extra. It is how a day on safari ends. How those days follow one another over a trip, you can see in our itineraries.