Space is limited in the vehicles and our luggage goes with us from lodge to lodge so please bring soft sided luggage – one less that 30″ long and one less than 20″ long. I generally use one 30″ bag for my clothing which is sufficient. Remember, we want room for photo gear.
Clothes that are wash and wear, mix and match, casual cotton or poly blends work best. While most lodges have one-day laundry service, I generally do my wash in the tub or sink and hang it in the room to dry. I like to wear safari-type cloths with lots of pockets preferring tans, browns, grays, and olives staying away from white or extremely light colors. I recommended you bring a hat, two pair of lightweight pants, one pair of shorts, three lightweight shirts (long sleeve or short sleeve), three pairs of socks, comfortable tennis shoes, sandals, a very light jacket or heavy shirt & underwear. Dinners tend to be a very nice affair so I recommend the ladies bring a light dress or skirt and blouse and the gentlemen bring slacks and a nice shirt, nothing formal just nice.
I carry on all of my photo gear so I have to pack it with care to get it all on. I use a backpack that meets international airline carry on restrictions and wrap each body or lens in small bubble wrap. I also carry a laptop bag that will hold the computer and a bunch of other stuff. I recommend taking at least two camera bodies and a variety of lenses including your 500mm or 600mm f/4 if you can get it on the plane. This was my first African Photography Safari and I didn’t take my 600mm – that won’t happen again. On this trip, my equipment consisted of three camera bodies: the Canon 1D Mark III was my primary wildlife camera, the Canon 5D Mark II was used for scenic shots, and a Canon 50D as a back up. My lenses were all Canon: a 300mm L f/2.8, 70-200mm L f2.8, 24-105mm L f/4, 17-40mm L f/4, a 1.4X and a 2X extender. Additionally, I took a Canon 580EX II Flash, cable release, and a variety of miscellaneous stuff. Tripods and monopods are not needed and get in the way. Buy a bean bag of some type that can be filled there with rice or bird seed in Kenya as we stand and shoot out of the vehicle 99% of the time. We will empty the bean bags prior to flying home.
Located in northern Tanzania, Tarangire National Park is home to a wide variety of wildlife including elephant, buffalo, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, lion, leopard, and cheetah, and if you are really lucky, you may see the African wild dog. The Tarangire is famous for its huge herds of elephants, in fact, on the afternoon game drive I counted over two hundred elephants in a lush green area about a mile and a half square. Additionally the Tarangire is a birders paradise with over 517 species of birds.
Our stay at Tarangire National Park was short, but I was able to get some very good photographs, especially of birds. A final plus for the Tarangire is that it doesn’t draw quite the droves of tourist that the rest of the Tanzanian northern circuit gets.
The Roika Tarangire Tented Lodge where we stayed is a well maintained with spacious walled tents, great beds and a private bath. Unfortunately I didn’t think the food was on par with the other places we stayed.
Amboseli National Park offers one of the most classic and breathtaking views of Kenya, with Mount Kilimanjaro (in Tanzania) as the back drop. At 18,652 feet, Kilimanjaro dominates the plains like a powerful god ruling the world from his white capped throne. In fact, ancient Swahili and Arab legends tell of a great inland mountain with a terrible god living at the top. As punishment for anyone daring to approach his throne, he would paralyze their hands and feet. Interesting how inhabitants of tropical areas described being frozen. Mount Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania but the most spectacular view is from Amboseli National Park.
Grey Crowned Crane
Back to Amboseli, we arrived at the Amboseli Serena Lodge in time for lunch and then an afternoon game drive. The lodge is truly wonderful. The accommodations were on par with an upscale US hotel. Meals were buffet and well prepared, again very westernized.
Despite your first impression that this is nothing but a dry, arid and dusty land, you soon become educated. Amboseli has plenty of water year round, it’s just underground. The snows of Kilimanjaro melt, soaking into the porous subsoil layers of volcanic rocks. These underground streams bubble to the surface forming two clear springs in the center of the park. Water also oozes up at several other points in the park creating large marshes like the Loginya Swamp. These swamps and marshes have become private spas for elephants, hippos and buffaloes.
Wildebeests at Sunset
During my stay in Amboseli I photographed some truly huge elephants and hundreds of other plains animals. What I didn’t see at Amboseli were cats. In fact, I didn’t get a photograph of any predators.
From Amboseli my tour took me from the north side to the south side of Mount Kilimanjaro as I headed for the Tarangire National Park.
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, and a variety of miscellaneous stuff. Tripods and monopods are not needed and get in the way. Buy a bean bag of some type that can be filled there with rice or bird seed in Kenya as we stand and shoot out of the vehicle 99% of the time. We will empty the bean bags prior to flying home.
