What to take on a Safari Holiday in Africa

The image of what most people have in their head of what someone would wear when on Safari is not far from what you should wear.

Safari Clothes Colors
The color of your clothing when on safari in the bush is important, you must be thinking of natural colors that blend in with your surroundings, so pale green, brown, grey and khaki coloured clothing is ideal. You may feel that Camouflage clothing would work best on safari, which would probably be right, but in many African countries it is an offence to wear camouflage if you are not in the military, so don't bring any.

White clothing would apart from standing out too much, will also get very dirty on the dusty roads in the bush. Black would be too hot in summer but black and dark blue coloured clothing can attract tsetse flies, an insect with a nasty bite.

Safari Clothes Materials
Many outdoor and camping shops in the west now sell clothing made from all sorts of new materials that are fantastic at doing things like repelling water to remain waterproof, or keep you cool with clever vents and weaves. One thing I would look out for is if they make noise when you move, this is especially common with jackets. Not only can this get annoying, but may actually warn skittish animals of your presence thus making a close sighting of the wildlife that you came to see that much more difficult. For me it is hard to beat cotton. Most professional safari guide uniforms are made from cotton.

I feel that a good jacket is one of the most important items of clothing to bring with you on safari and probably one of the easiest items of clothing to get wrong.

A Safari jacket is important, even if you are travelling to Africa in Summer. You will most probably go out on a game drive early in the morning, possibly befor sunrise and maybe have an evening drive. At this time it can get chilly on the back of an open air safari vehicle and so a jacket is important for your comfort.

I have mentioned before that it is important to get a jacket made from a material that does not make too much noise when you are moving about, so canvas, waterproof jackets are not the best, but better than nothing!) Cotton based jackets like the one pictured are best.

Make sure the jacket you buy or bring with has plenty of convenient pockets - perfect for storing that pocket guide to African mammals or your compact binoculars.

Again a good safari shirt will be made from cotton and I would suggest getting a long sleeve design that easily allows you to roll up the sleeves. When it is cold, the sleeves can help keep you warm, they can also protect your skin from the harsh African sun and then in the evenings they can protect you from biting insects like mosquitoes.

Pockets again are important for storing binoculars, cameras and pocket guides.

A collar is also always a good idea, it will protect your neck from the sun. You will always find professional safari guides wearing uniforms with collars and I have never once seen one wear a tie yet!

In my opinion, especially if you are planning on doing some walking safaris, it is advisable to wear trousers. They will protect your legs from the sun and scratches from thorny bushes etc.

If you are going to wear shorts, make them almost knee length, something similar to the large image of the safari guide (Milton a past colleague of mine) on this page and then even though it looks a little daft, longish socks.

Like the safari jacket and shirt, a few pockets are always helpful for carrying things like your binoculars or mammals guide book.

On of the most important items of clothing that you can take on Safari is a hat. The sun, even in winter can quickly burn your face eve if you use sun screen.

A hat with large rim is what I would advise, but anything, even a cap is better than nothing.

The peak of the cap or hat is also useful in blocking out glare, helping you in many cases get a better view of an animal without having to use your hands. This can't be underestimated as most of your game drives / walks will be either early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low and the animals most active.

If you are still looking for more information, I own and run the Safari Holiday Guide Website. I have included relevant links for you below:

Safari Clothing Advice
An article on what clothing to take on safari and why. It goes into a little more depth than what i have done on this page.

Safari Binocular Reviews
All about what binoculars are best for your holiday in Africa

Best Binoculars for Safari Holidays
Another page on binoculars for Safari holidays on the Best Binoculars and Binocular Reviews website.

Best Digital Camera for Safari and Travel
Back to my Safari Guide website and an article of the best digital cameras for safaris.. in my opinion!

if you own a website that you feel would be useful and relevant, please drop me a line.

With so many different options available, deciding which binoculars are the best for safaris or what ever use you have for them. I can only advise you on the binoculars that I have either personally used, or reviewed in the past.

But if I were to cheese a pair, which would I choose?

Well to start with I have to say that I own and highly recommend Steiner 10.5x28 Wildlife Pro binoculars

They are compact enough to easily carry in your luggage as well as with on a walking safari and take your camera along with as well.
If you plan on a walking safari and want to take your camera with, they are ideal as you can fit them into most jacket pockets, freeing your hands to take photos with your camera.

Another pair that I highly recommend would be the Steiner 12x30 Wildlife Pro Binoculars, larger than the Steiner 10.5x28 Wildlife Pro's, but still compact enough to easily take on holiday with you

Steiner Binoculars on the whole produce excellent quality optics and workmanship and are one of the most respected brands that offer excellent value for money.

Most people who go on safari take a camera with them, but most people don't take the right camera. I hope that with some of my experience, I can help you make the right choice for your particular needs.

Type of Camera: Digital SLR vs Digital Compact SuperZoom
I am not a professional photographer, rather a very keen amateur wildlife photographer, which means like most people going on safari, I don't have an unlimited budget to buy camera equipment and I don't have unlimited space to carry it all. But I do want to get as close to the action as possible and take great pictures.

So what I need is a camera that is small enough to easily pack in with my hand luggage for travelling with, it must have a very large zoom to get me close up wildlife shots and it must not be too expensive!

Digital SLR Cameras
The good thing about digital SLR cameras are that they take the best quality pictures and you can change lenses to suit different situations, including using a telephoto lens to get you closer to the action. The bad things are that they are expensive, large good quality telephoto lenses are very expensive and they are heavy as well as bulky. So unless you are a professional photographer or photography is your main interest and are happy that most of your luggage will be made up of camera equipment and you have a very large budget, I would say that you need something else... something cheaper, lighter, smaller, but still with a powerful zoom:

Digital Superzoom Cameras
For me these are the ideal solution and I have been using them for years. Now I know that professional wildlife photographers only use SLR type cameras, but I am not a professional and I do think that I take pretty decent wildlife photographs. For an example of some of my recent photos, that I took on a trip to Zimbabwe, take a look at my gallery: Beautiful Zimbabwe

Superzoom cameras are ideal for most people going on safari: most come with powerful zooms, they are much smaller and lighter than SLR cameras and they are much, much cheaper, especially when you take into consideration that you do not have to buy very expensive telephoto lenses on top of the price of the camera as you have to with an SLR.

So which is the Best Superzoom Camera for safaris?

Now I cannot speak for all cameras as I have not tried all of them, but over the last 10 years I have been using the Panasonic Lumix range of superzoom cameras. I started with the very good Panasonic FZ18, moved on to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 (FZ38 in Europe) and both were so good that I now have a brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100.

There are a few reasons why I like them so much, but one of the biggest is that even though they have always had a very powerful zoom (the FZ100 now comes with a 24x, 25-600mm equivalent), you can extend this even more by adding a telephoto lens to them to a massive 40.8x, equivalent to 1020mm on a 35mm camera! Which is just excellent for both wildlife and bird photography.

For more, including information and sample photographs taken with and with out the telephoto lens take a look at my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 Review.

Of course there are many other reasons to like the camera, as well as many other cameras that may suit your personal needs better, but in my opinion this is the best Superzoom Camera for Safaris

I would highly encourage to buy a African Mammals book and bring it with you on Safari. Even if you know your animals, it will greatly enhance your experience of being in the bush. Even after many years working in the bush most guides, myself included will often refer back to our quality Mammals book for reference.

If you are on a first time safari, the vast array of African mammals, especially all the different antelope can seem daunting, a simple identification book can really help. Sure your safari guide will identify the animal for you, but seeing it in a book can help imprint the name in your head and it is nice later on, after the safari to go through and learn a little more about the animals that you have seen.

If you know more about you African mammals, I would still suggest getting a book, but something like an animal behaviour guide (see books below) that will take you from identifying the animal to actually understanding why it is acting in a certain way. I use my Behavior Guide to African Mammals by Richard Estes all the time for reference, it is an excellent book, but definitely not for the beginner.

Ok, I know that most people who visit Africa on a safari holiday are not doing it to see the birds. When I point out different species of birds, I often see their eyes roll over and you can tell they are thinking, who cares about birds, where are the lions, elephants and giraffes!

The fact is, you are going to see way more species of birds on your safari than mammals and if you give them a chance, they can be as interesting as the bigger game. Africa has some of the best birding in the whole world, and if you want to learn a little more, I would highly recommend a bird book on the birds in the region that you are travelling to.

If you are really keen on birding, I would highly recommend the Roberts Bird Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa. it is what I used to take with me on almost every game drive I went on.