6 nights. I won a charity auction. Some of the people at the event had previously won it & recommended it highly. It’s been my dream forever. I may annoy everyone with questions, but for now, anyone done it?
No, but if you need a traveling companion…
It’s on my bucket list, & I already have all of my shots, which are probably not included & expensive.
Do these involve shooting large game animals anymore?
You lucky dog. Have fun. Take lots of pictures. Bring me a gift. A tee-shirt would be nice. Red sz medium.
I was born in South Africa, so went on safari a couple of times when I was young.
There’s nothing like it, at least in my experience. I’d strongly recommend taking this opportunity.
Couple of things:
Does it include airfare? (not cheap for a 14 Hour Atlanta-Johannesburg trip.
It’ll be hot there (S. Hemisphere and all). Check the internet and be prepared.
Guided all the way (airport to airport)?
Check on your shot records. May need some more, and not every Doctor’s office is equipped to administer vaccinations for, say, Malaria.
Otherwise, it is a lot of fun, you will see animals up close and enjoy it a lot. (At least I did).
I did, years ago, in the 90s. It was fantastic one of the best trips I’ve taken in my life.
Go, enjoy, I expect you’ll have an unforgettable time (in a good way).
Hm. I wonder how that ties in with this thread. Think you can outrun an elephant? How do you feel about being torn apart and devoured by lions?
We did a Tanzanian safari last year. Amazing. Bring a good camera
Nope. Maybe should.
Lucky bugger. I would kill anything to get on that trip.
My sister and I went to a South African safari park.
We had a marvellous time - here’s some stuff about the trip.
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Check if you need any shots.
Our doctor said we needed two (iirc one was typhoid.) -
Make sure of your travel arrangements.
Ours went smoothly until the taxi company failed to show at the African airport for the final leg of the journey. There was literally no public transport - but happily the airport staff recommended a reliable substitute. -
Have loose, comfortable clothing, decent footware (e.g. sturdy boots), bottled water and sun cream.
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Our park offered elephant rides. Accept!
Afterwards our safari guides said we could feed the elephants. We stood on a platform and scooped dry food from a storage bin. The elephants were obviously used to this (they are creatures of habit) and used their trunks to feed from our hands.
I enjoyed it so much that I was worried I was overfeeding one animal. I mentioned this to the guide. “Mr. Glee” he said “Look at the elephant. Now look at your hand!”
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Take a good camera, but DON’T use flash unless your guide says so.
Our safari truck parked in a good spot and a rhino wandered over within 10’ to feed. We could quietly take pictures. -
It’s a matter of chance what you see in the wild.
We clocked lions, hippos, buffalo and elephant. No sign of leopard (the guide explained their camouflage and stealth is excellent.)
Another tourist asked about seeing tigers! :o -
Our park had a crocodile farm.
Seeing them from a safe distance made me even more determined to listen to the guides and NOT wander off.
While I’m sure that by Hudson Bay standards, any time of year is hot in South Africa, just being in the southern hemisphere doesn’t mean a place will be hot. Safari areas tend to be on the hot side, but not necessarily and some are the “bring a jacket for when the sun sets” type. Check specific weather information for the area you’ll be visiting.
Make sure to do everything. Like shoot a lion in the face, fight Muhammad Ali, and ride in a convertible with two happy zebras.
My wife and I went to Kruger Park and Timbavati Game Reserve in South Africa last October. It was a great experience, especially as I am an avid amateur photographer.
Partial list of animals viewed:
Lion
Cheetah
Leopard
Civet
Hyena
Jackal
Wild Dog
Crocodile
Elephant
Hippopotamus
Rhinoceros
Warthog
Buffalo
Giraffe
Wildebeest
Impala
Kudu
Klipspringer
Vervet Monkey
Chacma Baboon
Five kinds of eagles
Herons, egrets, storks, ibises, guineafowl, bustards
I came back with 1600 images.
What month are you going? Having gone in October, we were in the tag end of the dry season, when malaria risk is lower. My wife and I did not do malaria pills before the trip, relying on heavy-duty repellant and infused bandanas. YMMV depending on time of year.
In Kruger Park, one has to stay within a vehicle while outside of the camps (except on marked bridges). One morning, however, we took a game walk with two armed rangers (a condition for being on foot), tromping around the Letaba River. That was fun.
The organizers suggested bringing the following:
Light casual clothing preferably in neutral colors so as to be as inconspicuous as possible in the bush
Sweater for evenings
Windbreaker or light jacket, scarf and cap for early mornings (5:30am in our case)
Sun hat
Once again, this was in October. We did get rained on one morning, but the vehicle came equipped with ponchos.
I’ve done this in South Africa & Botswana - highly recommended. A couple of suggestions:
Get a quality set of binoculars; practice until you’re comfortable with them.
Pay attention not only to the four-legged animals (as everyone does, because they’re great) but also the birds. Southern Africa’s bird life is beyond extraordinary; to visit there without paying close attention to this would be like passing time at the rim of the Grand Canyon in your hotel room.
I was in India last week.
I read that fast as banana instead of bandana.
This is absolutely critical. Do NOT rely on your cell phone or on a cheap point/shoot camera. You need an SLR with a decent telephoto zoom lens that will punch out to 200-300mm, and that preferably has video capability. This will likely be the vacation of a lifetime and you don’t want to have fuzzy photos of some sort of creature off in the distance.
Oh yes. We were lucky in that one of our hosts was an esteemed birder and pointed out the various birds that we came across. These included (here comes another list):
Tawny eagle
Steepe eagle
Wahlberg’s eagle
African fish eagle
African hawk eagle
Bataleur
Hooded vulture
White-backed vulture
Verreaux’s eagle-owl
Pels fishing-owl
Melanistic goshawk
Western cattle egret
Great egret
Goliath heron
Grey heron
White stork
Saddle-billed stork
African sacred ibis
Hadedah ibis
Egyptian goose
Helmeted guineafowl
Kori bustrd
Red-crested korhaan
African jacana
African wattled lapwing
Blacksmith lapwing
Grey go-away-bird
Pied kingfisher
Little bee-eater
Lilac-breasted roller
Purple roller
Red-billed hornbill
Southern yellow-billed hornbill
Fork-tailed drongo
Dark-capped bulbul
Magpie shrike
Yellow-billed oxpecker
Red-billed oxpecker
Red-billed buffalo-weaver
Red-billed quelea
Cape glossy starwing
[puff, puff]
It was very helpful that I had a decent telephoto lens (per Chefguy) that at 400mm allowed me to capture the birds, while also permitting closeups of the faces of the lions, leopards, rhino, buffalo, etc.
I’ve done a self-guided day trip to Pilanesberg, and spent a long weekend on a self-guided trip through Kruger, and they were both awesome, although Kruger was much, much more awesome.
Neither of these are hunting reserves, and I’m certain that the government would object to hunting activity.
I really want to return to Kruger with the family, and spend a week or more there. I typically detest tour bus type tours, and suspect that I’d hate a “safari” trip, unless, I suppose, it were a pricey, private one just for the three of us. I didn’t get to see lions in the field, for example, so an expert guide would probably be appreciated.
Oh, I did see lions at a self-drive lion safari park near Joburg, but that was kind of like driving through the various “safaris” that we have here in the USA.