SUNDOWNER ON YOUR AFRICAN SAFARI – Africa’s Famous Happy Hour, On safari, everything is bigger than life: the vast scenery, the beautiful big cats, the huge elephants and giraffes… and yes, even its famous Happy Hour, which is called The Sundowner.

Think about it: you’ve spent a full day driving over savannahs, through bush, over hills, and deep in the forest, seeing all kinds of wildlife in their natural habitat. You’ve been amazed, taken pictures, and seen more big game than you ever thought possible. Now that the light is getting softer in the late afternoon, it’s time to take a deep breath.

Your Safari Trips to Kenya guide pulls up to a tree with a view of a wide plain, a deep, beautiful valley, or maybe a lake or river. He spreads out some blankets on the ground and pulls out a small kit that looks like a bar. It’s full of drinks, snacks, and glasses. After that, he takes your drink orders. What would you like to drink? Gin and tonic, wine, beer, or something without alcohol?

As you look up, the sky is filled with pink and gold streaks and an orange dusk canopy that spreads out. This is because the sun is getting brighter and brighter on the horizon. The small snacks are passed around, and as you enjoy this beautiful setting with your drink, the day’s atmosphere is slowly dying down.

The sundowner is a calm way to start the evening and a chance to think about how beautiful Africa is and how happy it makes you to be here.

As you enjoy your drink, you may not be aware that you are a part of an old practice in Africa. During the years when Britain ruled the colonies, British troops would drink gin and tonics on the plain as a way to relax and stay healthy.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives and minds than all the doctors in the Empire,” Winston Churchill is said to have joked.

So, what was it about the G and T, as the popular drink became known, that made Churchhill admire it so much?

Malaria was a terrible disease that killed a lot of jungle people in the 1600s. But it was found that quinine, which came from the cinchona tree in South America, could treat the sickness very well. The native people told the Jesuits that the tree’s bark could fix them, and they brought this knowledge to Europe to use as medicine.

The illness that would have killed them was stopped by distilling the quinine into a tonic. British troops mixed quinine with sugar, lime, and gin to make it taste better because it was very bitter on its own. The last one, the gin, was part of their normal food. This is how the classic gin and tonic came to be.

The Empire and Its Cure

Sundowner Lionhill Game Lodge in Sarova Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, Africa, and Tanzania was reached. People say that British soldiers in India were the first to mix the G&T. As the empire grew and spread to malaria-prone places like Africa, it was only normal that the popular and medically necessary drink went with the troops.

Soon, British soldiers and then the upper class people of the 1800s loved the gin and tonic more than any other drink. As the day went on, more and more people raised their glasses to this drink, and in colonial Africa, the sundowner became a tradition.

Today’s Sundowner took place at Naserian Mara Camp in the Masai Mara in Kenya.
We don’t drink gin and tonic anymore because it’s bad for our health, but the classic taste of this old drink has become a part of our sundowner routine. Wine, beer, and sometimes cigars are served with snacks and are more modern additions to this relaxed break in the safari day.

As you sip your sundowner on your African safari and take in the beautiful view of the sunset, know that you are following a long ritual.

Enjoy the moment like thousands of people have done for hundreds of years on Africa’s beautiful fields, plains, and woods.

Happy drinking!