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.