Safari Tips

So you've finally booked your first safari trip! Congratulations! It's going to be amazing no matter how long you are traveling for and which countries you are going to. You are likely to see landscapes the likes of which you've never seen before, encounter cultures you've only maybe read about (or not) and see wildlife in a variety and quantity unmatched anywhere else on the planet. Africa is a special place. It is the cradle of humankind. I hope you find the kind of peace and spirituality we've found on each of our two trips so far. I feel we have maybe three or four or more in us. So many places to go!

We took our first safari trip to the Victoria Falls area of northern Zimbabwe and Botswana in August of 2015. We then followed that up with a two week jaunt through Kenya and Tanzania this past February. We thought we were pretty good travelers in 2015. We did some things right and we made some mistakes. We tried to adjust our approach a little this year and I think we got it mostly right, although we still struggled with a couple of things. As a veteran (go ahead and laugh, please) of two safari trips, I thought I'd offer what we've learned from our time getting to, staying in, moving around and coming back from Africa. Here's a six pack (because the best things in life come in six packs) of thoughts to help you on your first safari.

On the left, my backpack during the trip; on the right, on the way home.

1. Travel Light

The first time we went on safari, we carried a single backpack each. We were only there for six nights so it seemed to us that we'd be better off if we could carry everything we needed on our backs, particularly since we'd be moving around between three separate locations. It worked really well but if there's one thing I learned on that trip, it's that people all over the world know how to wash clothes and that most safari lodges will do laundry for you. Sometimes it's even free. Any two night stay in one place is an opportunity to launder what you take with you.

This trip was longer than our first. 13 nights in total. We again elected to take a single backpack each even though our stay was more than twice as long. This time, we strategically planned to do laundry once and contacted the property located mid-way through our trip in advance to see if they offered laundry services, which they did. We could have done even better and taken less if we'd planned better and had our clothes washed more often. Lesson learned. Again.

The one problem with traveling light is it doesn't let you bring back much with you. So we always take a drawstring backpack that packs flat to accommodate souvenirs. You can still count your main backpack as a carry-on and use the drawstring backpack (now full with stuff from curio shops) as your personal item to place under the seat in front of you on the way home.

2. Carry Tip Money

I suppose tipping isn't mandatory when you are on safari, but it might be the right thing to do. If you can afford to travel all the way to Africa for a week or more, you can probably afford a little gratuity for the folks who are guiding you, driving you, carrying your bags or walking you to your tent at night in an unfenced camp to protect you from potential predators like lions and hyenas (hey, it happens).

The problem with tipping is it requires a lot of small bills and it's not always easy to get denominations of money equal to a buck or two out of an ATM when visiting a local bank. In Kenya, the smallest note we got out of an ATM was 1,000 shillings which is worth about $10. In Tanzania, we did a little better, getting all our cash in 50,000 shilling notes which unbelievably is worth about $4.50. There are certainly occasions where we can tip larger than $10 at a time (guides and drivers particularly) but $10 is sometimes a bit much, particularly when there are a lot of folks to tip for relatively minor efforts. $4.50 is a much more comfortable tip but even that might be a bit rich for some people sometimes.

The solution: carry your local currency. Everywhere we went this year people were happy to accept U.S. dollars or Euros or British pounds. There are currency exchange shops all over the place and some may even do it without fees for locals. You can take whatever time you need to get lots of small bills before leaving home and you won't have to worry about ever having the right sized bills.

Would you rather have this?

Or this? Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

3. Invest in a Camera

I chose the first word of this item carefully: Invest.

On our first trip to Africa I came equipped with an old iTouch and a Blackberry Torch phone to take pictures with. It worked great. As long as the subjects were pretty close. Or maybe very close. Fortunately, we got near to enough wildlife that I got a few dozen good pictures. But anything small more than a few feet away or anything large more than a hundred or so feet away? Not so much. Don't misunderstand me. I have memories from that trip that will last the rest of my life and I don't need pictures to remind me. But there sure are some things I'd like to remember better or maybe even hang on my wall at home. And for that I needed more than the cameras I brought with me to Botswana and Zimbabwe in 2015.

Last summer we made the decision to buy a better camera. And by that I mean better than our phones. The problem is we don't know much about apertures and f-stops and all that sort of stuff and don't particularly want to learn. We also didn't want to mess around with multiple lenses while being out on safari or anywhere else for that matter. We're traveling light, remember? The last thing I want to do is add a bunch of zoom lenses to my luggage.

Enter the Nikon COOLPIX P900. It's a fixed lens camera with an 83x zoom feature that's super easy to use for camera dummies like us while also having the ability for more sophisticated users to dictate custom settings if they are so inclined. It allowed us to photograph wildlife in stunning detail from a long long way away while also being able to handle very large and very close animals. Most all of the pictures on this series of blogs I'm writing about this trip were taken with this camera. As a point of comparison, the two pictures above were taken with my iPhone SE and our Nikon. The top photograph is zoomed all the way in on a tree with a leopard on the lowest branch to the right of the main trunk; it's a little splotchy because it's really beyond the range of my phone camera. The photo below that was taken using our new camera. There's absolutely no comparison between these two pics.

We traveled with some folks this year with more expensive and more complicated cameras. My opinion is the camera we bought was better. I can't recommend this camera enough. I love it. I feel a little awkward promoting stuff on this blog but it's amazing. It really is.

4. Bring Batteries and Memory

After getting our awesome camera (and testing it out last August in Alaska), we decided we needed some backup power and some storage before we hit Kenya and Tanzania, so we headed to Best Buy or wherever it was that we went to get some spare batteries and some extra memory cards. After all, we were planning on being in the middle of nowhere for two weeks. Surely having some extra juice and some memory cards on hand in case we filled up the camera during a lion hunt or something like that would be a good call.

Do you know how much memory cards for cameras cost? I figured they were cheap and picked up a 256GB memory card, only to return it when it rang up at about $200 at the register. No thanks! We settled for an extra 64GB and two extra batteries. We needed the batteries because power really was in short supply in some spots. We also needed the memory because we filled a 64GB card in about a day and a half. My cheap-ness almost un-did us with just 64 more GB to spare. After that we decided to just download our pictures once or twice a day onto our iPad Minis and then cull the collection on there where we could get a good look at them on a larger screen. Way better, easier and cheaper. Unless you don't have an iPad I guess.

No matter how you decide to do it, don't head overseas on safari without some kind of backup plan. Our amazingly awesome camera has its own wifi that allows us to download pictures in minutes to our iPads and then clear the internal memory. We found it really easy to use what we usually watch movies on as an external hard drive. It's not like this is the only camera in the world with this feature but if your only option is to spend $200 or more on memory, do it. Better that than running out of storage at a critical time.

5. Pack a Wildlife Guide
I know my first tip above was travel light so why am I now encouraging you to pack extra stuff? Well, on both our safari trips having a wildlife guide handy for our own use has proven pretty useful.

First, I'm not talking about a large book with pictures of every species of mammal, reptile, bird and anything else you might come across in it. I mean a laminated foldable card that shows maybe the top 50 or 60 species that takes about no space to pack. After all, it's as flat as about three or four sheets of card with some lamination.

Why do we even care about this? I mean won't your guide have something way more deluxe plus years of experience spotting wildlife? Why bother?

Two reasons. First, it helps to be a little self-sufficient sometimes. Rather than constantly asking "what's that?" you can actually identify a secretary bird or a gerenuk yourself instead of relying on someone else. It also allows you to make requests. Will we see all three species of hyena or just the same spotted one we keep bumping into everywhere? Odds are on this one you'll just see the spotted one and that's it.

Second, it's a way to make friends. Lending your guide to others allows interaction among you and your fellow travelers if you need a prop to stimulate conversation. Guaranteed not many others in your party have these things. You're a mini-rock star if you bring one of them along in your one bag. They are cheap and you can get them at Amazon, like everything else on Earth.

6. Bring a Hat (With a Cord)

The sun is hot in Africa. It's not likely to be the same as where you are from because you probably don't live as close to the equator as you will be when you are on safari. A wide-brimmed safari hat in olive green or khaki (do they make other colors?) is an essential must-pack. I know it's a bit cliche and they are not the most attractive things in the world but believe me once you see the aftereffects on someone else a couple of days in, you'll be glad you have yours. And guys, I know you think you have plenty up top there but some of us may have less than we like to admit. Wear a hat! I got one that packs flat which is great for traveling since I can just shove it in the back pocket of my one bag that I allow myself to bring.

Now here's the important part: make sure it has one of those strings that goes around your neck and cinches tight. Safari vehicles go fast sometimes and the hat can blow off your head, particularly if you have an open-topped or pop-top car like we did. We had four hats blow off in our two weeks (three by one person...) so it's not like what I'm cautioning against is a rare occurrence. Don't worry, we went back and picked them all up. I mean we can't really leave them in the middle of a National Park for a lion to choke on. But still, you don't want to be that person ever, right?

Heading off to Africa next week or next month or next year? Consider this post a "bare minimum" checklist to point you in the right direction for success. If we ever go back, we'll certainly use all this knowledge from our mistakes on our past two trips. Well, make that when we go back, not if. This place calls to us on a different level than anywhere else we've ever been.

LOVE this camera! Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.