Patty

I'm picturing the scene in City Slickers where the coffee grinder starts a stampede

Leely

Has anyone mentioned the tanning bed? I, for one, really missed mine.

13moons

a pocket size digital P & S camera for times when I just wanted to get a shot and not be invasive.
more moisturizing cream
some fingerless gloves or lightweight ones as the am's were nippy.

atravelynn

A tiny keychain flashlight to light up camera settings on night drives.

santharamhari

Guts!!! Ocassionally, i lack the courage to pack my camera away and just enjoy the moment. I feel i am too caught up with the "best" angle or shot or whatever and the moment passes by without taking it in it's entirety.....

julimbo

santharamhari,

I'll have to agree with your observation. I always think of a story that my boyfriend's father once told me. He and my boyfriend's mother were out in Eastern Canada and went on a whale watching trip. Minutes before the sightings began, the Captain told everyone to just put there camera away and enjoy the ride. He said you can always refer to National Geographic for the detailed pictures but you can only live the experience once. Just sit back and enjoy and then you can pull out the cameras.

Juliet

slickpaper

Just returned from Tanzania on 01/04/07. The best thing we took that everyone laughed at me about were fly swatters. Paid $0.44 a piece and probably could have sold them for $50 to every group that we passed! Tsetse flies were furocious both in Western Serengeti and Tarangire, most particularly the latter. Also make sure you have some good insect repellant. One other thought we had was that instead of taking one mega disk for your camera maybe take a few smaller volume disks so you can swap them out so that if something happens to your camera or someone makes an unforgiveable mistake that you won't loose all your pictures. Bring plenty of hand wash. Safe travels.

atravelynn

The value of flyswatters depends on the season. No need in the dry season for them in my experience.

I can imagine the wild times in the vehicle during a quiet game drive if everyone were armed with a swatter.

Amunah

I bought a very light-weight, nylon Columbia khaki long sleeved shirt at Bass Pro Shops before we went on safari. I wish I had bought two. I ended up wearing the shirt over a T-shirt most days. It was excellent sun protection (even with sunscreen I burn) and it was great for added warmth on the cool morning and evening game drives.

I wish we had purchased an extra 2-GB memory stick for our camera so that we could do video. We just took regular photos because we were concerned that we would run out of memory. Videos would have been great. We also wished for the sounds of the hippos at night at Little Governors and Il Moran.

mrm512

I would agree about the extra camera memory cards. I didn't take movies with my camera until the end because I was so paranoid about not having enough card space or batteries. Probably a wise decision for me, but I wish I had taken more movies. My daughter, not as practical as I, took many movies and I am so glad she did. We did use all our batteries and all our cards though!!

I will comment on the fly swatters -- I went in June, and we had absolutely no need whatsoever for a fly swatter. So it is very true that what you need is dependent on when you are going, and where you are going.

I hope you have as good a time as we did!!!

~Mary

VDB

better camera and lenses! Would have been worth the $ and agreed one can re-sell on ebay/craigs.

Glad we had:
converter plugs and an external storage device (Wolverine). So no need to worry about movie or photo space.

Wet naps
tissues
hand santizer
flashlight/Lantern combo (Brunton LED Lamplight)
Flip flops for the vehicle
trail mix - single serving packets

VDB

Forgot the #1 missed item - Stronger deet repellant. We had 30 - 35% and wasn't enough in Jan! A friend who lives in TZ confirmed after the fact you need 50% or stronger (of course if your skin can take it).

sundowner

I forgot to take deoderant in my carry-on one year. By the time I arrived in JNB I had been in airports and planes about 24 hours and still had several more hours to go in airports and planes. A fresh application of deoderant every 8-12 hours (and a fresh pantyliner) makes a big difference in how horrible I feel on these marathon flights to Africa.

Cindy

hetismij

Two things I wish I'd taken - a bigger lens and some sort of sound recording device.
I've now got the bigger lens, and I can borrow my son's dictaphone thingy next time I go. Just got to get DH in gear and get it organised.

Actually a gps would have been a neat thing to take too!

mingxa

ttt

mingxa

Sundowner, a good substitute for deodorant is the alcohol based hand gel. Quick drying, clean, clear, no toxic chemicals!

merrittm

ttt

GrannyJoan

bump

nyama

A better GPS.

hausfrau

Thanks to LyndaS's awesome packing list, the only thing I was missing (because I somehow misplaced it and could not find one at the travel stores here in Germany) was my rubber clothesline!

Oh, and I suppose I would have brought a pair of slip-on closed-toe shoes instead of my sandals as a second pair of shoes, because it was cooler than I expected at night (Kenya & Tanzania in mid-February).