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As we prepare for our trip to Kenya and Tanzania in just a few weeks, there have been several items that we have purchased with the safari in mind. Some of them were items that we needed to replace, some were things very specific to the safari, and all will be useful on other trips in the future. To be clear, we purchased all of the items and none of them were given to us as a promotional product. We are light packers these days, regardless of the trip, but since we’re going to spend 11 nights on safari, we are only taking carry on bags, so everything that we take needs to serve a purpose. Obviously we’re taking more than just these items, but these are the things that we bought in preparation for our trip.

Safari Hats and Shirts – We have several shirts that are sufficient for going on safari that we used when going to the Amazon Rainforest as well as to Egypt, but we decided that it was time to get a few more. One thing that we don’t normally wear are hats, but considering the amount of time that we are going to be exposed to the sun, we definitely needed wide brimmed hats that will protect our heads from getting burned.

Multi-Outlet Power Converter – Although we’ve had a power converter for years that has served us well, we decided to upgrade to a new power converter that has multiple outlets so that we can charge several items at once. The amount of time in the lodge is going to be limited as most of our time will be spent in the jeep, so keeping our phones, cameras, and other electronics fully charged is going to be important. With this power converter we can charge up to 6 items at one time compared to our old converter that could only charge a single item.

DSLR 400 – 800 mm Zoom Lens – We have other lenses for our camera, but we decided that for this trip we should getter a different telephoto lens. We don’t know how close or how far away we will be to certain animals, but we definitely don’t want to miss out on getting that close-up of a lion or other animal just because we couldn’t get close enough.

Camera Backpack – This is certainly something that we should have purchased years ago as will definitely make taking multiple cameras and lenses much easier. It is large enough to put everything into, but small enough to use as a personal item for the flight. It will definitely protect the camera equipment during the times when the cameras are not out and in use.

New Duffle Bags – It was about time for us to get new duffel bags as our other bags had seen 7 years of travel to over 30 countries. We always want duffel bags as carry-on bags so that they can squeeze into tight spaces and collapse when not in use. Hopefully these will last as long as our last ones and make their way to even more countries.

iPhone Zoom and Fisheye Lenses – We take as many photos with our phones as we do our cameras, so having different lenses that simply clip over the phone camera lens provides the opportunity to capture things that we wouldn’t always get. We also like the images that the fisheye lens produces, so we’re looking forward to playing with some of the different images.

Although we did buy these items with our safari in mind, clearly they will all be useful for all of our upcoming trips. It is very rare for us to buy things specifically for a trip, so versatility is important to us. We look forward to all of these items as we head to Africa in just a few weeks.