Africa Safari Ideas

After reading the articles about Safari trips to Africa and the recommended gear I have composed a list of the things I think are the most important:

1.  A lens cleaning kit and small tool kit including screw drivers and Allen wrenches.
• two of the three articles stressed that you will need to be able to clean all the dust out of your camera and that the bumpy ride in the safari vehicles will inevitably loosen things on your camera
2. A DSLR and two lenses for it (as long as they can be afforded)
• All of the articles talked about needed at least some zoom power and preferably a super-telephoto lens too.  (a 100-400 mm and a 500 mm or 600 mm)
• No matter what the lenses and camera need to have Image Stabilization of some kind because of the terrain and shooting situation
3. A small tripod and a beanbag tripod
• Sometimes the beanbags work well but sometimes you need something more stable in order to get the shot as sharp as necessary
4. A computer, external hard drive and power converters.  
• It's not only a good idea but almost necessary to empty your memory cards everyday to prevent loosing images by loosing a memory card.  To do this a computer is necessary and external drives are helpful.
• The power supply in Africa is around 220V instead of the 110V we are used to here in the US.  A power converter in necessary so that charging devices will be able to plug into the wall.  It is also important to make sure that your devices will be able to handle the extra voltage.
5. Having a private vehicle/guide
• with too many people in the vehicle shooting becomes more difficult.  The other passengers can get bored and want to move on before you are done taking your pictures.  You may want to wait around for the action but everyone else gets bored.  Other passengers can also get in your way when you are trying to position yourself to take a picture.  With more people in a vehicle there is less room for all your equipment.  
• A guide that is serving less people can cater more to those in the vehicle.  They may be able to move the vehicle into a better position instead of just moving onto find more game.  The guide will be able to stay longer at a certain location if asked because there are less people to be kept happy.  

An African Safari is expensive by itself but wold not be nearly as valuable without the correct gear.