Some people go on Safari thinking that Africa’s weather is hot and so a good jacket is not that necessary. Not true, winters can be very, very cold in many safari locations and even in summer it can be pretty cold on an early morning game drive, on night drives or even in the evenings sitting around the boma enjoying your evening meal.

I have owned a number of safari and bush jackets in my time, some very good and some not. In this article I will go through some of the features that I find useful and point you in the direction where you can find your ideal safari jacket.

Origins
The style of jacket similar to that of the main image in this article was made popular by around the beginning of the 20th century by the early European adventurers who came to Africa.

Safari & Travel Jacket
You must remember that a true safari jacket or bush jacket is a garment designed for the purpose of going on safari in the African bush and therefore function and comfort are far more important than style. But also remember that before you get to to the bush, you will also be doing quite a bit of travelling. To save on luggage space it makes sense to use the same jacket for travel, so make sure that it is comfortable and at least a little stylish!

Colour
As with most of you safari clothing, stay away from bright or shiny colours. On safari you want to blend in as much with your surroundings as possible. So stick to green, brown, beige and khaki Jackets.

Also try not to pick a jacket with camouflage colouring. I know that it seems ideal and makes popular urban wear in the west, but in Africa only the military wear camouflage and indeed in some African countries you can be arrested for wearing it.

Materials
Many Jackets will be made from a materials that are waterproof, but make a noise as you rub against it. This is perfectly fine for camping in a wet environment, but if you are trying to sneak up to skittish animals like an antelope, the noise made by your clothing can often frighten them away. Cotton drill type materials work the best and if you need your jacket to be waterproof, look out for ones that have a waxy type covering.

Pockets
Pockets to me are really important and cannot be underestimated! Look out for ones that will make it easy for you to carry your camera, binoculars or guide books.

Buy Safari & Bush Jackets

Below are a few examples of ideal jackets to travel with and take on safari.

	Joe Browns Forces Bush Jacket Stylish as well as hardy, this bush jacket from Joe Browns has retro military styling and is a great laid-back jacket that’ll stick by you through thick and thin. Loads of large pockets ideal for storing binoculars, a compact digital camera or safari guide book. The outer is made from 100% Cotton, the lining: 65% Polyester, 35% Cotton. Note the Shirt and T-shirt are solde separately. Buy on Amazon.co.uk Buy on Amazon.com
	Mens Workwear Safari Jacket Made from 100% cotton canvas, the Workwear Safari Jacket has 2 bellowed hand warmer pockets, front placket with stud fastening, 2 chest pockets with stud fastenings and Studded cuffs to sleeves. Buy on Amazon.co.uk Buy on Amazon.com
	Mens Jack Pyke Hunter Jacket Waterproof – Breathable – Noiseless. The ideal safari jacket. Outer shell: 100% Polyester brushed tricot with laminated membrane. Lining: 100% Polyester brushed mesh & taffeta. Details: Full length double opening zip, Concealed hood in pocket, 2 lower front bellow pockets with cartridge holders, 2 hand-warmer pockets 1 internal chest pocket, Fold-down waterproof seat flap, Elasticated weather shrouds on wrist, Available in olive green or english oak. Buy on Amazon.co.uk Buy on Amazon.com
	Safari Gilet / Safari Vest As an alternative to a long sleeve Jacket, ideal for wearing in warmer weather is a safari gillet or vest. Good ones like the Result Adventure Safari Gilet pictured on the left come with many pockets an are ideal for photographers or indeed anyone on safari as the pockets can be use to store your binoculars, guide books or anything else. Buy on Amazon.co.uk Buy on Amazon.com

Safari Wear
For more, take a look at this section of the safari guide on Safari Clothing and Advice, it includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear.

The term “combat” also implies that the garment is more likely to be made with a camouflage print but this is not always the case and I would suggest that you stay clear of ex-military camouflaged clothing when going on safari as I have heard that it is illegal in some African countries.

Having said all this there are many combat trousers for women that are ideal to take with you on safari and they often end up being much cheaper than buying specifically designed Safari pants or trousers from specialist safari stores.

In general what you are looking for is a pair of combats that are comfortable to travel and walk in, they must also be tough, but without being too warm to wear in hot conditions. The colour should help you blend in with your surroundings, so go for khaki, beige, greens, browns and stone colours. Any extra pockets can be really useful for holding things like cameras, binoculars and birding books.

Where to Buy Combat Pants

	Womens Combat Trousers Amazon have a great range of womens combat pants as well as cargo pants ideal as safari wear, take a look at the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com
	Khaki Crop Combats Combat crop trousers for women offer you great comfort and will keep you cool on those hot summer days, featuring stitch detail, pocket detail at the front and yoke detail at the back. 100% Cotton. Machine Washable Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Safari Wear
For more, take a look at this section of the safari guide on Safari Clothing and Advice, it includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear.

Cargo pants are so named because of their ability to carry so much “cargo” in the pockets. But as safari trousers, womens cargo pants are ideal because most are designed for tough, outdoor activities and have several large pockets, most often with button, snap or Velcro closable flaps. In addition to these front and back pockets, they will often have side pockets as well.

Cargo trousers often come in stone, khaki or beige colored and cotton, but can come in other colors and fabrics as well.

Where to Buy Cargo Pants

Soul Cal Brushed Womens Cargo Combat Pants Soul Cal is inspired by the laid back Californian lifestyle, bringing you cool, casual wear with a hint of luxury. These cargo trousers are ideal to take on safari. Rugged enough to handle anything the bush throws at you, plenty of pockets and still stylish. For these and other womens cargo pants check out the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Safari Wear
For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear.

The image above is one of the most iconic images of the Sixties and depicts German model Veruschka in Kenya, defiant and pouting, with a rifle hitched behind her shoulders, wearing nothing but an over-sized floppy hat and a skimpy khaki Yves Saint Laurent tunic for a Vogue shoot, photographed by Franco Rubartelli. What it did was start a new and exciting fashion trend: “Safari Wear” and all of a sudden it meant that you could not only look great whist on safari, but you could take some of the clothing onto the streets of Paris as well.

Safari dresses are not as piratical as wearing a shirt and trousers, but they are ideal for wearing around the lodge and are fine whilst on safari in a vehicle. I would however not recommend using a safari dress for walking safaris, here trousers to protect your legs from thorny bushes and plants are far more suitable. I would look at using a safari dress once you have returned to the lodge after your game drive, they are ideal to wear around the pool and to breakfast and lunch.

As with all safari wear, look out for dresses in colours that blend in with the bush, so khaki, browns, greens and stone colours work best. As a dress will not really be worn out on walking safaris, things like extra pockets and the thickness of the material is not that important.

There are far more durable dresses available (see below) than the dress shown on the right that may be that little bit more suitable for travelling with.

Where to Buy Safari Dresses

Promod Safari Style Dress Instant casual chic and ideal to wear around the safari lodge is this gorgeous safari shirt dress. Popper through fastening. Flap chest pockets. Mid-waist design. Turn-ups on short sleeves Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Safari Wear
For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear.

Whatever the differences, there are many Combat pants that are ideal to take with you on safari and they usually work out much cheaper than buying specifically designed Safari pants and trousers from specialist safari stores.

For a full explanation read my article on what you should look out for in the perfect pair of safari trousers for men, but in general what you are looking for is a pair of trousers that are comfortable to travel and walk in, tough without being too warm to wear in hot conditions and the colour should help you blend in with your surroundings. Any extra pockets can be really useful for holding things like cameras, binoculars and birding books.

Combat trousers seem to tick all the boxes and so you may wish to take a look at what combat pants are available to buy on-line below:

Where to Buy Combat Pants

Mens Combat Trousers ideal for Safaris The Soul Cal Miami Combat Pants on the left are ideal, bringing you cool, casual wear with a hint of luxury. If they are not quite your style, Amazon have a huge range of combat pants ideal for safaris, take a look at the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Safari Wear
For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear.

In a nutshell, what you are looking for are pants that are comfortable to wear and walk in, tough, without being too warm to wear in hot conditions. Their colour must help you blend in with your surroundings and any extra pockets can be really useful for holding things like birding books, cameras and possibly binoculars.

Cargo Trousers

This style is ideal as most Cargo pants are designed for tough, outdoor activities and have several large pockets, most often with button, snap or Velcro closable flaps. In addition to these front and back pockets, cargo pants will often have side pockets as well. Cargo trousers are most often khaki or beige colored and cotton, but can come in other colors and fabrics as well. It is no wonder that Cargo pants are so named because of their ability to carry so much “cargo” in the pockets. The style became so popular that cargo shorts soon followed and are also ideal for taking on safari.

Where to Buy Cargo Pants

Mens Cargo Trousers for Safaris The Carhartt Men’s Canvas Cargo Pants on the left are ideal, made from 100% cotton and feature large side cargo pockets but if they are not quite your style, Amazon have a huge range of cargo pants ideal for safaris, take a look at the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear

What Makes the Ideal Safari Trousers?

The main functions of your safari pants are to protect your skin from the sun, biting insects and thorns in the bush. On top of this pockets will help you store books, cameras or binoculars.

Colour
As with most of the clothing that you should wear in the bush, you want the colours to blend in with the enviroment, so look for Beige, Brown, Green and Khaki coloured trousers. My advice is to always stay clear of camouflage prints as in some African countries it is illegal to wear it if you are a civilian.

Material
I find that a cotton material works best for me, depending on the thickness used they can be surprisingly cool and still protect your legs not only from the hot African sun, but also from biting insects like mosquitoes especially in the evenings. These days you can also find many trousers made from new man made materials, specifically designed to keep you cool that also work excellently. I would however just make sure that when you walk they don’t make too much of the canvas type rubbing noise which could scare away potential animal sightings especially on walking safaris.

Ruggedness
There is always a balance between your trousers not making you too hot when you wear them and being tough enough to survive walking through a thorny bush whilst on a walking safari. Even if you don’t plan on walking through the bush your trousers must be tough enough for travel.

Pockets
Again depending on the type of safari you are on pockets are either nice to have or almost essential. If you are going to be in a game drive vehicle for most of the time, extra pockets are nice to have. If however you are going to be going on camping and walking safaris, extra pockets to carry things like compact cameras, binoculars, bird books or even pocket knives are really important.

Cargo Pants
Cargo style trousers are ideal as they have all the qualities we are looking for. For more take a look at this article specifically about Mens Cargo Pants for safaris or take a look at what is available to buy on-line below:

Kariban – Mens Safari Trousers Available in Beige, Navy and Black – I would definitly go for the beige colour. Elasticated waist with zip fly and button. Adjustable clip belt. Two front pockets. Two back pockets, one zip, one tear release. Left leg zip pocket. Right leg multi-pocket, two tear release sections and one zip section. Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Mens Cargo Trousers for Safaris The Carhartt Men’s Canvas Cargo Pants on the left are ideal, made from 100% cotton and feature large side cargo pockets but if they are not quite your style, Amazon have a huge range of cargo pants ideal for safaris, take a look at the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Mens Combat Trousers ideal for Safaris The Soul Cal Miami Combat Pants on the left are ideal, bringing you cool, casual wear with a hint of luxury. If they are not quite your style, Amazon have a huge range of combat pants ideal for safaris, take a look at the links below: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear

Sleeves
Long sleeves can not only help protect you from the harsh African sun, but also from biting insects in the evening and the chill on an early morning game drive. If your safari vehicle does have shade, then a short sleeve shirt or sleevless blouse will be more comfortable during the heat of the day.

Pockets
Are not always for show, if you carry a camera or binoculars on safari (and you should) a good pocket or two either on your shirt or safari jacket will help especially on walking safaris.

Collar
A safari shirt with a collar is a good idea, again this will help protect your neck from the sun

Colour
As is the general advice on all your clothing, you should be looking at getting colours that blend in with your environment and in this case it is the African bush, so look for shirts and blouses that are khaki, brown and green colours. To really blend in many people would assume that camouflage coloured material would be best and this may be so, but it is un-advisable as in many African countries it is illegal for civilians to wear camouflage.

Type of Material
This is important, I find that cotton works best as it is the most comfortable in hot conditions. These days there are a number of modern materials that work just as well, but if you plan on any walking safaris try and make sure that what you wear does not make too much noise like a canvas type material as this could give your location away to any wildlife that you are trying to sneak up on.

Where to Buy Women’s Safari Shirts and Tops

Because safari type wear has become fashionable many high street stores now stock suitable tops, you can also buy on-line:

	Promod Crinkle effect cotton Safari shirt The khaki version of this top makes ideal safari wear, it has a buttoned collar, lapelles on the shoulders. 2 flap pockets and is made from 100% Cotton. Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com
	Promod Belted longline shirt Made from 100% cotton, this light top is perfect for those hot days on Safari. Whilst the shirt may not be ideal for walking safaris as it does not have pockets, it would work well within a safari vehicle or just to wear around the lodge. Promod Crinkle effect cotton shirt Amazon.com

For more, take a look at this page on Safari Clothing Advice, that includes Men’s and Women’s Safari Wear

I recently received the following question on combining a photographic safari holiday with some scuba diving:

Hi,
I was wondering if you could assist us with any suggestions for our safari
holiday: As I am a photographer and my girlfriend a newly qualified scuba diver, we are hoping to combine a safari with some diving. Do you have any packages and advice?

As it is a fairly common question, I thought it may be useful to post my answer on the site:

You guys obviously enjoy the same things as I do: photography, diving and wildlife!

I learnt to dive in Kenya – mostly because it was cheap and I had a few days to spare, see my article on Scuba Diving in Kenya. Kenya is also obviously a good place to go on safari – just make sure that you don’t get one where you go in a mini van packed with tons of other tourists as you will find it very difficult to get any decent photography done.

Whilst Kenya is great, I personally think that a fantastic place to combine scuba diving and Africa’s wildlife is the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park.

It has all the wildlife you could ever hope to see in the reserve and if that is not enough you have the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Parks nearby. I have heard that the diving at Sodwana Bay which is Part of the Greater St Lucia Wetland reserve and located within the Maputaland Marine reserve is the place to go Scuba Diving in South Africa, although as yet I have not been lucky enough to try it for myself.

Because it is a national park, you can hire a car travel around by yourself, giving you the time to stop and take photographs of whatever you like. Accommodation in South Africa’s National parks is excellent and much cheaper than staying at a lodge, just book early as the fill up quickly.

What is more is from here if you are feeling adventurous, you could travel up into Mozambique where there is also some great diving, but far less wildlife.

I hope this helps as I don’t actually sell any packages on my site, just advertise them.

For more holidays, a good place to look is the Safari Holidays section on my site, there are holidays that include diving as well as, photographic specific ones

Just look for a holiday that is similar to your requirements and fill in the enquiry form under it and the operator will get back to you directly.

Cheaper Airport Parking and Airport Hotel Parking

The current recession has made large and small companies all look to reduce their costs and expenses and travel is an obvious area, which has come under the microscope. While face-to-face meetings, will still continue companies are looking at technology to reduce travel with telephone conference meetings.

Over the past 9 years the travel industry has faced numerous events that have placed ever greater pressure on margins:

• 9/11 Twin Towers.
• SARS outbreak in Asia
• Indonesian Bombings
• Al-QaedaA attacks in London and Spain
• Credit Crunch
• Swine fever and a potential pandemic

Having been involved in the Airport Parking business since 1989, the last 18 months must rank as the worst. The result has been cheaper parking prices, particularly at Gatwick airport and customers looking for cheaper deals need to monitor prices in much the same way as booking a flight. Super choice of car parks for Gatwick airport parking.

As with pretty much every National Park in South Africa, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi has an excellent road network, making them ideal for self drive safaris and whilst I do believe that if you are a novice in the bush, you will get more out of it if you have a qualified guide with you, I can also understand that it is sometimes more enjoyable to do your own thing. So below are the self drive safari tips provided by the couple as well as a few that I have added myself.

Advice for Self Drive Safaris

In the video the tips they pass on are listed below:

1) Drive Slowly
I could not agree more, you really need to drive slowly, not only will your vehicle thank you if you are on dirt roads, but your chances of seeing game will dramatically improve.

2) Avoid the Mid Day Heat
Again this is excellent advice. If you ever stay at a safari lodge and go on game drive with a safari guide, the drives will almost certainly be either in the early morning or late afternoon as most Southern African animals are much more active at these times. So get to the wildlife reserve early go on a game drive till mid morning and then during the mid day, relax, have some lunch or laze around a swimming pool to keep cool and then go out again later in the afternoon to maximise your chances of viewing the wildlife.

A few More tips:

Stop on Bridges
I noticed in their video that they stopped on a bridge and looked up and Down the River, this is a great tip – most animals need to drink at some time or another and because of this sources of water always make great places to find many species of animals and birds. You never know what you might see. Even if the river is dry, many animals especially larger ones like Elephant will use dry riverbeds as highways, partly because they are easier to walk down than through the middle of the bush and because there is often an abundance of food sources growing on river banks – so it is kind of like an animals version of a street market.

Use a 4×4
This is not so much due to the roads, as mentioned earlier most National Parks in South Africa have an excellent road network, perfectly fine for a saloon car. It is more for the height advantage, the higher up you gan get the better, this is especially important during and after the rainy season when there will be plenty of tall grass about.

Use Hides
Many Reserves will have game viewing and bird watching hides located in the park. The are usually positioned in areas where wildlife is often seen (water holes are a favourite). So find out where they are on the reserve, try and get to one either early in the morning or later in the afternoon and hopefully you will get plenty of sightings.

HluHluwe Elephant: 1 German Car containing Swiss Tourists: 0

A Swiss couple had a holiday experience that they will never forget, when came a little too close to an elephant on their African safari in HluHluwe Game Reserve in South Africa.

For me it really illustrates the importance of going on a Safari Game Drive with a qualified safari guide (field guide). Sure there will always be accidents, even with a qualified safari guide because the African bush and it’s animals can be unpredictable at times.

A trained field guide will not only will they have been trained in animal behaviour and what to do in an emergency, but they will also be able to point out many interesting aspects of what you are looking at. Their local knowledge will also mean that you are bound to see more of the wildlife as well.

Self Drive Safaris
Most of the National Parks in South Africa, including the Kruger National Park, Addo Elephant National Park and the HluHluwe uMfolozi National Park allow you to go on a self drive safari, but usually only on certain roads. Most also offer Guided Game Drives as well as options to hire a guide who will travel with you in your own vehicle.

So please when you go on Safari to one of the many National Parks in South Africa make sure you organise a guided game drive as I am sure the Swiss couple of Rico Beltrame and his sister Angela would vouch for.

For those who are interested, Rico Beltrame and his sister Angela were both fine after the incident although the damage to the rented cost about R7000 to repair!