Africa! The name itself is magic, bringing to mind the scent of exotic spices, the chant of tribal music, and of course the wild herds and the predators who follow them. Africa is one of my favorite destinations, and for anyone interested in wildlife photography it’s clearly like the Promised Land. I’ve never been on a disappointing African adventure, but I’ve had some that have stood out more than others, and I do know of people who have been disappointed. I can’t speak first-hand about every African destination, but I can speak about the ones I’ve experienced and relate comments from others who have done their African journeys in another way. I can also recount my own research process, and what I learned from it.
To start with, there are three ways you can do an African trip. The first, which isn’t one I’d personally recommend for what I hope are obvious safety reasons, is to do it independently, driving yourself around or arranging ad hoc for local transportation. This is fine if you have a lot of experience traveling on your own, but it’s not for most people. The second way is to use a local company to book flights (other than the US/Africa leg that you can get on your own) and accommodations, and also arrange for pickup and drop-off between hotels and airports and the like. The final way is to do an organized tour, where you’ll be with the same group and be transported as a group throughout.
We’ve done both tours and pre-structured trips, and we’ve enjoyed both. For touring Africa in a group we love Natural Habitat Adventures, who’s been booking adventure trips for us for decades now. NatHab does a great Kenya Migration trip, and anyone who wants to see the migration should give the company serious consideration. Having the same expedition leader and the same people throughout your trip can be really nice (if you like them!) and we know people who don’t do Africa or much else except with a company like NatHab.
The disadvantage of the group tour, of course, is lack of customization. We do more African trips using the third of these three models of travel than any other way, and that’s because we’re always finding places that we want to try. We book our trips through Icon Expeditions, which is a division of Rhino Africa, a big tour operator and travel agency in South Africa. Their travel agents are great at helping you pick camps to stay, and lining up all the local transportation, which can range from big commercial jets through small planes to land transportation. Logistics problems in a strange place are truly terrifying so you need somebody like this to make sure you don’t go astray.
Then there’s the “where”. If you’re “going to Africa”, you are starting off with the wrong mindset. Africa is a continent as diverse in habitat and wildlife as most continents are. Depending on just where you visit, you can expect different scenery, culture, and critters. That means that before you take off, you’ll need to align your goals with some specific destination in that vast general place we call “Africa”.
There are three broad ranges of habitat in Africa; rain forest, savanna, and desert. Most of the desert is in the north, along the Mediterranean Sea, which is the famous Sahara. The more southern areas of Africa are what most people think of when they hear the word “Africa”; this is sometimes called “sub-Saharan” Africa, or known by the general regional names. East Africa is along the Indian Ocean coast. West Africa is the bulge that sticks out toward North America, and southern Africa (South Africa is a country so we don’t want to get confused) is the portion from the Cape of Good Hope north to roughly the boundary of the equatorial jungle countries like the Congo.
Each habitat has its own scenery and wildlife focus. For example, if you want to see chimps or gorillas you have to go to rainforest, which is found primarily in West Africa and some central/equatorial countries. Uganda is popular for mountain gorillas. If you want to see vast herds of antelope and other similar stuff, you go to Kenya or Tanzania in East Africa, or perhaps to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. You can check online websites for guidance here. The one I particularly like is Eyes on Africa. The Kalahari in extreme northwestern South Africa, Botswana and Namibia is home to many antelope and predators like lion and hyena, and it has spectacular sand-dune scenery in some areas. If you love meerkats, this is the best place to find them, but hippos are sparse in the desert. The point is, do your research on the best areas for each type of animal you hope to see.
Another thing you need to look at and think about is safety. Not all the US is safe for travelers, and that’s true of Africa for the same reasons. However, as a continent there’s not much question that Africa is less “safe” than North America. It’s a collection of countries as much as one of habitats, and they vary in safety as much or more as they vary in topography and wildlife. Some places are just totally unsafe; think Somalia. Others are quite stable, including Botswana and South Africa. Yes, even in stable countries you have to watch out if you’re on your own, particularly in major metro areas. But how many would think of walking around New York City at night? Wildlife safety is also a bigger issue in Africa because there’s more dangerous wildlife. The point is that you need to check the State Department websites, check English-language news sites for recent issues with tourists, and in general do your homework. Most reputable travel companies will avoid areas that are REALLY risky, but your tolerance for risk may be tighter than theirs. Personally, I avoid places with terrorist risk or where there’s a chance of a revolution or large-scale riot.
OK, back to wildlife. I’ve found that most people who go to Africa are looking for “The Big Five”, which are lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo. Where do you go if you want that experience? My personal recommendation would be South Africa, and in particular the Kruger National Park area. I’ve been there three times now, and there were more than a few occasions when we saw the Big Five in a single day! But let me say here that the game-drive experience can be very different from what you expect, and in fact the most common complaint I’ve heard about African visits relates to the game drive experience. Our expectations are too much set by TV.
We think of Africa as being all wild, but much of it is heavily populated and so most game viewing in Africa is done in national parks. These parks are open to the public but at least somewhat patrolled to keep the wildlife from being poached and to keep human/critter interactions favorable. You can’t have a couple million tourists and residents running amok through the wilderness if you expect to have any animals left (and a manageable number of tourist casualties) so nearly all the national parks will restrict driving to the roads. That may not seem like an issue, but it’s the core of the game drive complaints.
There are few roads in national parks, and so it follows that if you stay on them and if animals are fairly evenly distributed through the landscape, you’ll be on the average some distance from those animals. Kruger is about 7,500 square miles, and about 1800 miles of game-view roads. If you assume that your optimum game-view distance is within 100 yards, then the total area in “close” proximity to the road is about 110 square miles, or about one and a half percent of the area. If the animals are evenly distributed in the park, you’re going to have a shot at seeing perhaps one critter in sixty. Get the picture?
“The picture”, of course, is what this is about. Everyone has seen “the picture”, on National Geographic Channel or in magazines. Lions staring into your eyes, cheetah perched on the hood of your vehicle, rhinos chasing you along. Most people go into their trip hoping for that kind of encounter, and yes a few actually have one (read my story of my lion encounter elsewhere on this site!) The thing is that they’re rare. Wildlife photographers typically have off-road driving permits and that means they can go up to an animal that’s spotted well off road. They have a ton of time to spend too, and the minute sequence you see on lions on the NatGeo channel may have been digested from twenty hours of tedious filming. In national parks, most people can’t spend a lot of time in one spot, and you can’t drive off-road either, so you may see your Big Five at a greater distance. Of course, you may be lucky enough to have them near the road, and the longer you stay to go on game drives the better your chances are. I’d never consider going anywhere for less than three nights per camp, and I’d not consider a trip with fewer than three camps. We did five camps on our 2011 trip, and we’re averaging about four camps for trip as we head into Trip Six for us.
The good news is that you can improve your chances dramatically if you are willing to spend more. Both Kruger and the Masai Mara where the Great Migration of wildebeest is seen have a number of private reserves or concessions in or adjacent to the national park. There is no public access to these reserves; only guests there can enter. That means little vehicle traffic and in most cases no restrictions in off-road driving. In a private reserve, you have the same access to wildlife that a National Geographic photographer would have. And don’t let the term “private reserve” make you think of an animal park in the US. These places are WILD and so are the critters. In many cases they’re open to the parks so stuff roams in and out, but the public isn’t allowed, poaching is relentlessly suppressed, and the animals are more tolerant of vehicles.
Whatever country or area you decide on, you’ll be looking to stay in a camp or lodge that will be your base of operations and where you eat and sleep. Camps vary widely, from a casual tent with a bucket shower to a luxurious suite of rooms with air conditioning, multiple showers, minibar, plunge pool, and the works. We’ve done everything in this range, and I guess the best advice I can offer is to first pick a place that’s going to let you see what you want to see, and then worry about how much luxury your budget can cover.
You may see a lot of animals from your camp; we’ve watched elephants from our room and shooed gazelle out of our way on the way to dinner. Most will be seen on game drives, though. When you go on a game drive, you should expect to be riding in a big Land Rover or Toyota Land Cruiser that’s substantially open; no windows or doors and often no roof either. You toss on a poncho if it rains. You’ll have a guide or ranger and a tracker, with the former usually driving and the latter often sitting on a little jump-seat in front of the radiator on the opposite side to the driver. It’s kind of an exposed position for a lot of reasons; you can get pushed into brush and things could in theory try to eat you. When you’ve been on a couple of drives you’ll come to know the thrill of having the guide stop the vehicle so the tracker can get into a normal seat. That usually means something that poses a bit of a threat is nearby!
Just how close you get will depend on where you are; as I mentioned before, private reserves will let your driver go off-road to get closer, and many times we’ve been within just a few feet of animals. You also sometimes get to experience the excitement of running with a pack of lions on their way to a hunt, or crashing through brush to catch up to something. You need to be careful on these bushwhacking drives; anything too high can be snatched off.
It’s very important when on a game drive to keep your voice down and NOT to stand up or get out of the vehicle unless your guide tells you it’s OK. Some animals will be spooked by loud noises or major movements like standing or changing seats. It’s also true that predators tend to regard the vehicle and the passengers as one big and smelly and not-edible package. Standing could give them another view, one that creates more risk. I’ve seen a guide tell a tourist in the vehicle that he’d return to the camp and leave the guy off, never to ride again, if he tried standing just one more time.
Which brings us to tourists, your fellow travelers. Most of the time, vehicles will hold a maximum of between eight and thirteen people, and you may get ones that are full and others (happy day!) that are empty except for you. We like to have no more than four in a vehicle, but six is OK if the ranger/driver is mindful of getting positioned to allow everyone to see. Ask your agent not to book you into a camp that will let more than 6 ride (unless you’re a family group with more). If you have children you plan to bring, make sure the camp’s policies on kids fit your situation and expectations. Most won’t let small children (under 12) on a vehicle for safety reasons or for the enjoyment of others.
Speaking of others, since you’re probably going to share a vehicle at least some of the time, the key thing is to try to get everyone spread out so you don’t get in each other’s way while photographing. If you don’t plan to take pictures or don’t have a particularly good camera, it might be nice to defer seats on the outside to those who do. You can see the critters from pretty much any seat, but getting a picture across someone’s lap or around their (usually large, seemingly ubiquitous) hat can be a challenge. One thing that really annoys me is when somebody decides to take their pictures with an iPad or tablet. Something like that creates an enormous barrier to those behind, and in most cases the critters won’t be close enough to get a great shot that way. If you do demand to play billboard with a big tablet while photographing, have the courtesy to ask for the last seat so you’re minimally invasive (and hope you don’t travel with me!)
Camera selection for Africa is really challenging. You will have some situations where the animals are mere feet from you. I had two lion encounters where big males came right up to the door, less than two feet away (and I missed shots on both!) If you’re familiar with 35mm camera conventions on wide-angle and telephoto, then be aware that some shots will need lenses as wide as 20mm and for many you’ll find even 500mm to be insufficient for best results. I can’t make do with one camera, and if you’re serious about pictures you will probably end up carrying at least two. I have three with me on safari!
Recently my wife and I have both acquired Nikon 1 “mirrorless” interchangeable lens cameras. These are a kind of hybrid—between point-and-shoot and DSLR in size and cost. The special feature of the Nikon 1 is that with an adapter you can mount standard Nikon lenses. I have a Nikon 80-400 AF-S lens that with the Nikon 1’s 2.7:1 focal multipler is the equivalent of a 1080mm lens! Even that’s not always enough.
One disadvantage of the Nikon 1 and many of the point-and-shoots is delay or lag. Most of these cameras will turn themselves off after a minute or two, and there’s an appreciable delay getting one turned back on. Cheaper point-and-shoots also often have “shutter lag” which is a small delay when you push the shutter button before the picture is taken. These are frustrating when you have a quick shot to grab, and so my solution is to keep a DSLR with a nice mid-to-long lens mounted, turned on, all the time as my ready camera.
Image quality is a big deal here, particularly if you want to take shots of something really far away and you don’t have a good telephoto. Ideally you’ll want at least 10 megapixels of resolution and ideally you’ll want to shoot at the highest level of quality, meaning the largest file size per image, that’s available to you. So take plenty of cards, or a way to dump your files to a computer. I used to use a computer as a storage device but it was a hassle to keep dumping files while between game drives, and with the card prices coming down it’s not worth it in my view. Buy big cards so you don’t find yourself changing cards in the middle of something.
How many pictures you’ll take is a function of the length of your stay and your camera-finger itchiness. My rule of thumb is 200 to 700 per day if you’re shooting digital, and if you’re still using film your total film/processing cost may end up being a big chunk of your travel budget, not to mention the space in your suitcase. With digital you can review your shots and delete stuff that’s not worth keeping, and if you’re careful that means you can take a couple of shots of something good and then review and delete what doesn’t work. That can be helpful with wildlife in brush, where your autofocus may be tricked into focusing on a branch instead of the animal you want.
Camera stability is an issue under some conditions. If you have a relatively long lens (300mm or longer) or if you’re shooting in dim light (safaris start in the dark for the morning drive and end after dark on the afternoon drive) then you may need something to help with slow shutter speeds. Some love beanbags, which are just soft bags with some filler that molds itself to something. Some of these have a tripod fitting on them so you won’t drop them over the side of the vehicle. I’ve tried them and the challenge is having something to put them on for all the angles you may need to shoot at.
A monopod works better, but the best strategy is to have image stabilization on the camera or lens, and have a camera that has good performance at a high ISO setting. I found that with the Nikon D7000 and the 80-400 VR Nikon lens I didn’t need camera support and I could control my shutter speed and lens opening better. With my Nikon 1 and 80-400mm, I need a monopod even with VR. Incidentally, if you’re going to Africa and you don’t know about lens openings, shutter speeds, and ISO settings, I’d advise you to try to learn or you may miss some great shots. I have more photo tips on my blog, if you’re interested.
You can shoot videos too, of course, either because your camera does both pictures and videos or because you have a dedicated video camera. When shooting videos you need to be mindful of any camera movement, which means you may need to be able to brace the camera while shooting. Some like a monopod with a pan head, others just use a beanbag on the edge of the vehicle (be careful not to drop it), and some will just try to hold steady. Everyone has a preferred video style, but if you look at pro videos, particularly those of YouTube length, you’ll see that most are either a single extravagantly interesting scene (like a kill or a fight) or they’re an artfully assembled series of video clips. That means avoiding shooting five minutes of lions standing around or leopards sitting in a tree. Fifteen seconds of either of those is a long time for the viewer!
Clothing is another subjective and variable issue. Southern Africa has seasons but they’re reversed so the cool and clear “winter” is summer in the northern hemisphere, and the hot and usually rainy “summer” is during North American winter. We’ve tended to go in the fall, and in that period you can have very hot (how about 117 degrees F) and also quite chilly (in the 40s) days. We always take a light fleece jacket. It can be rainy too, but they’ll normally provide you with a poncho. If you plan to walk around camp you’ll need a raincoat, of course, or even an umbrella.
The safari camp routine seems pretty consistent across the camps we’ve visited. You get up about 5 AM, quickly dress, and go down for a light coffee-snack breakfast. The vehicles will generally be loaded and off by 6 AM. You’re out on the morning drive for about 3-4 hours, during which you’ll stop briefly at some point for coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies. When you get back a full breakfast is available. You are then free till around 2 PM when you have lunch, and after a brief rest and refitting, you get a high tea (yes, there’s a lot of eating going on) and you’re then off on the afternoon game drive. You’ll stop around sunset for a drink (“sundowners” are renown in Africa), and when you return it’s time to clean up for dinner (if you don’t see something, run late, and end up going right to dinner from the drive!) By then most are tired and go back to their rooms to sleep till the next wake-up.
Because you’re moving around camp when it’s dark, you need to have a flashlight with a nice bright beam, but you also need to remember to call the desk or signal to have someone guide you around. Don’t wander around alone, even in camp. Someone was killed by a lion in one of the camps we visited, the year before we were there, and we’ve seen blood from kills of antelope just outside our door. Also remember to shake out your clothing and shoes before you put them on in the morning. There are plenty of things you won’t want too close to your skin!
Camps vary enormously in terms of facilities. Some are like resorts with air-conditioned rooms, private plunge pools, indoor/outdoor showers on separate villas, and so forth. Others are tents pitched out in the wild, and there’s something at every level in between. Obviously the villas tend to be pricier, and many think tents are glamorous, which in some ways they are. However, tents can be hot or cold and buggy, and many tented camps don’t have electricity available full time, which may be an issue for you if you need to charge batteries. Most will let you charge during the day when they run the generator; you can leave the camp staff with the batteries and chargers. That means you need to plan to have enough batteries to make it through a day. I typically take three per camera. Some camps will have Internet service, and most will have some sort of phone service. You may have cellular coverage if you have a compatible phone and plan. I’ve posted a separate tip on international phone usage for those who are interested.
The main thing about your camp choice is research. You need to visit the camp’s website and you should also check on independent websites for comments. The main thing is to be aware of the facilities you can expect; air-conditioned or not, power to charge things or not, and what is and isn’t included in the way of meals, drinks, etc. It’s easy to get bummed out by expecting something different than reality, and also easy to have your trip messed up because you overlooked an important aspect of the places you picked. Remember that everyone will say you have a “chance” of seeing something; you also have a chance of winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning!
Finally, when you get there you need to be positive and make the best of things as they are. Not only will that insure you have the best possible time, it will insure you don’t bum out everyone around you. It’s easy to fall out of a rover, so don’t aggravate your companions too much. Take it easy and have fun. Africa anywhere at any time is an experience of a lifetime!
