What to pack for a safari
Neutral colours, layers, a soft bag and less than you think.
Packing for safari is simple once you accept two things: you will wear the same few items every day, and nobody will mind.
The bag
Soft-sided, no wheels if you can manage it, and light. Light aircraft between camps usually limit you to 15 to 20 kg including hand luggage, and the bag must squash into a small hold. Camps do laundry daily, often included, so a week's trip needs three or four days of clothes.
Clothes
- Colours: khaki, olive, brown, grey. Not for fashion: bright white and strong colours stand out to animals, and dark blue and black attract tsetse flies in East Africa and Zambia.
- Layers: dawn drives in winter can be near freezing on an open vehicle, and the same day can reach 30°C. A fleece, a windproof jacket, a beanie and light gloves for June to August in southern Africa; the camps provide blankets and often ponchos.
- Trousers and long sleeves for evenings (mosquitoes) and for walking (thorns, nettles, sun). Shorts and T-shirts for the day.
- Shoes: comfortable closed shoes or light boots for walking safaris and gorilla treks; sandals around camp. Nothing new; break them in.
- A hat with a brim, a buff or scarf for dust, swimwear, and one smarter outfit if you want it, though no camp expects one.
Kit
- Binoculars: 8x42 or 10x42, one pair per person. The single most useful thing you can bring.
- Camera: a 200 to 400 mm lens if you have one; a phone is fine for scenery and plenty of people never regret leaving the big camera at home. Spare batteries and cards; charging is limited in some camps.
- Head torch, power bank, universal adapter (South Africa and Namibia use Type M; Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe use the British Type G).
- Sun cream, lip balm, insect repellent with DEET, a small first-aid kit, your malaria tablets, any prescriptions in their original packaging.
- Documents: passport with six months' validity and blank pages, yellow fever certificate if required, travel insurance details, printed confirmations.
Leave at home
Camouflage clothing (illegal to wear in several African countries), drones (banned in most parks), hairdryers (most camps have them or cannot power them), and anything you would be upset to lose.
