Green, Gray or White?
 

I know that the obvious answer is Khaki or brown, but I just don't feel like changing my entire wardrobe for one week on safari in Tanzania. I've already got some clothing that fits the correct color, but do have a few sweatshirts and fleeces that are green, gray and white. If you had to choose another color, other than khaki, what would it be? I'm more concerned about the animal's behavior than the decked-out, fashion conscience tourists. We leave two weeks from yesterday...can't wait!!

Green and grey should both be fine but certain shades of grey, together with blue, attract tsetse fly so that may be a consideration.
White, if it's bright white, should be avoided in large blocks as it's not a colour that occurs in large blocks in the wild and <i>can</i> sometimes spook animals.

If the green is not lime or real bright, that should be fine too. The khaki is more important when you are on foot than in a vehicle. Have a nice trip.

What about black or navy? - I'm thinking more about at night.

For night drives black or navy would be fine.

Hi all,

If you are in a land rover, does white matter? I mean, isn't the car white? I just ask because I was planning on wearing it. (I know it will get dirty, but I can live with that).

Lawrence

Thanks for the help everyone! A couple more quick questions:

1) What amount of deet should I have in the insect repellent? Do you recommend that I get the special kind for clothes, or can I just drench myself with the regular &quot;super strength?&quot;

2) Sunglasses - just broke my favorite pair:( Have a couple pairs of sports Oakleys, perfect for the outdoors, but they are glazed in a blue, reflective color. Will this be OK, or should I go for a different color?

Thank you for all your help! Only 10 days left:)

traskyuk:

If you were to take one light gray sweatshirt and one fleece jacket you should be fine.

I wear white blouses on all my game drives with either khaki or navy shorts and have never had a problem. Have never seen a tsetse fly either.

Spray with 30% Deet is fine (if you need it). You can also get pyrethrin spray to spray your clothes. You may not see any mosquitos at all - all depends on when they had their last rain.

Any polarized sunglasses would be fine. I have only heard of one person who was born in Kenya who burned the eyes from not wearing glasses.

If you normally wear contact lens, be sure to take glasses with you. The dust generated by the vehicles sometimes irritates the eyes of those wearing contacts.

Have a super trip.

Jan

Jan
White is not a colour avoided because of tsetse flies - that's certain shades of blue and grey and tsetse flies are less prevalent in many areas of Africa than they used to be because of success in eradication programmes - but because it has the <i>potential</i> to spook animals.
That said, guides in East Africa seem much less concerned on this point and it's not the case that one <i>must</i> not wear it, by any means.
However, if one has the range of clothes to be able to avoid some colours without it being inconvenient and necessitating the buynig of a whole new wardrobe, it can't do any <i>harm</i> to avoid those colours, is my feeling on it.
I think it's just a minor consideration rather than a directive but it's always nice to be armed with information, right?

Kavey:

I realize white doesn't attrack tsetse flies. However, from what I have heard from all, dark blues do. Have never had a problem even in Tsavo where tsetse flies used to be prevalent.

I wear a white blouse because it will go with whatever shorts/pants I decide to wear, thus needing to take less than usual. Hey Kavey, maybe the snakes see in color and don't like white?!?

Were I one to bush walk, it would definitely be khaki, greens, etc.

Thanks for clarifying things though.

Jan

You're so lucky - those little tsetse critters bite HARD! But I do think that they are less of an issue as I keep reading about various eradication programmes... we didn't experience them as much in Botswana this time around (2004) as the previous time (2001).

I don't mind snakes but if I could just find some easy way of repelling spiders so that they would never ever come into our tents or anywhere near me, I'd BUY IT NOW!!!

:D

PS Don't know what's right and all but we were told that the blue that attracts tsetse flies is nowhere near as dark as navy - it's a much lighter, brighter colour. In Botswana you'd often see scraps of grey and blue cloth that they had used to create some traps - they attracted the tsetse fly and were impregnated with some chemical or other...
The blue was a bit like the Fodors hyperlink blue though not quite... the grey was a bit darker than standard scrollbar colour grey.