We are 6 weeks away from our 1st safari. Have been reading along here at Fodor's for many months and cannot believe it's almost 'my turn'!!! I have read all the packing threads and have most of my stuff ready to go. My only question is do I really need anything warm(like a fleece jacket) for October? All the trip reports from Oct detail the intense heat and I don't want to 'waste' any space with a jacket/fleece if it is not necessary. Our itinerary is 2 nights Eagle Island, 2 nights Chobe Chilwero(has A/C), 2 nights Victoria falls hotel. Thanks in advance.

momofmany

October was very hot when I was in Botswana, and the fleece did not get used, except maybe for a couple of minutes in the morning. I have a zip up fleece, that really does not take that much room or weight and should you need it in summer, it's well worth having. So I guess I find room for it.

I was in Botswana in Oct05 for 17 nights and it was incredibly hot but it did cool down in the wee hours of the morning. I did take a sweatshirt and wore it a couple of mornings. I didn't have to wear it very long (maybe an hour or so?) because it warmed up very fast. It's almost "flip a coin" kind of thing. If I hadn't taken one I would have just layered some of the clothes I did have. I did have long sleeve shirts and wore them alot to keep from getting sunburned.

Good luck with your packing. Deciding what to take and packing is the worst part of the safari. Well, unpacking when you get home is the probably the worst part.

Thanks, just as I suspected, kinda 'damned if ya do, damned if ya don't', I'll probably make room...Sundowner, I read you trip report and that's when I started to re-think bringing it, was it hot in October?LOL! I have read elsewhere that Oct in Bots is "suicide month"(due to the heat).

momofmany

As a recommendation for October, soak a bandana in iced water and tie it around your neck. Works wonders. Most evhicles have a cool box full of water, make sure they have a couple extra for this cooling method.

Hi Matt,

You may want to take a look at the Cobber, a great Australian invention which basically does the same thing as your bandana but has a gel inside which soaks up the water and stays cool all day. I've used this on some of my trips and it was great.

http://www.cobber.com.au/index.php?del=true

You can buy them from Tilley in the UK and in some outdoor stores in the US.

Cheers,
Julian

If you read my trip report you may remember that I used a plastic spray bottle to "mist" everywhere with water on game drives (and in our un-a/c'd tented camps). That really helped to cool off. Arms, legs, inside my shirt front & back, face.