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Tips from my K&T trip
Overall the trip was very well organized and exceeded all our expectations.
TIPS:
1. Avoid jet lag. We flew Miami 12 noon to JFK, JFK to Amsterdam, to Arusha, arriving approx. 8pm. We purposely stayed awake at least the last half of the JFK to Amsterdam leg until arrival in Arusha, so that we were on Arusha time schedule, tired and ready for a full night’s sleep.
2. Arrive in Arusha 1 day early. Get a good night’s sleep.
3. Arusha National Park - Several activities are available during the day before you meet the group in the evening. We chose to do full day tour of Arusha National park. This was great as we saw the colobus monkey which you do not see in other parks and able to do walking tour where we were close to giraffes, as well as seeing lots of animals. Email Tumain at the Lake Duluti Serena hotel to organize this. Cost is $200 per vehicle (up to 6 people) and around $50 per person to enter park and another $25 per person if you want the walking tour (recommended).
4. Adapter – You need the “G” type plug for all the hotels. We brought a multi-plug adapter which was useful for the European airport layovers.
5. Camera – the longer the zoom the better, at least 600mm. My son had a 40x optical zoom (over 900mm) which was a great advantage in some instances. It is very dusty, so bring a small air puffer to blow dust off the lens and lens cloths.
6. Photos – I am not a professional photographer, but quickly learned to love to set my camera to the scene setting and choose the sports setting. This captured great photos of moving animals where I kept my finger on the shutter and ran off 6-10 photos in rapid succession, then I chose the best shots.
If your camera does not support this, another good option is to take videos, and when playing the video back on your Ipad you can pause the video at a scene or photo you would like, and then snap freeze-frame this photo, which is then added to your camera roll.
7. SD card – we used 1 sandisk 32gb extreme pro, and brought 2 extra cards which we did not need to use. We did not empty out the SD card, as it was not filled despite LOTS of photos and videos.
8. IPAD – We transferred photos from the SD card to the Ipad, using a connecter (Apple connecter sold at BestBuy- maybe can get elsewhere), on a daily basis. This was to backup our photos in case the SD card became corrupted. Plus we could edit our pictures easily on the Ipad and share the photos with others.
This was a much better option than relying on wifi to transfer the photos.
9. Transportation – bumpy “roads” tolerable, small planes and hot air balloon not as scary as was imagined before the trip.
10. Food – some people got the runs, so follow the advice of only bottled water, cover your faucet with washcloth to remind you to not use that water to brush your teeth, eyes and mouth closed in shower, do not eat washed fruit or vegetables, no ice cubes in drinks, and maybe avoid exotic or unfamiliar dishes- just to be sure.
Anyway, Cipro and antidiarrheal Imodium or Lomotil worked very well.
11. Clothing- Colder than you might imagine during July and August, so layers needed. Very casual - do not need anything close to fancy at all.
"Trip of a lifetime" - enjoy
TIPS:
1. Avoid jet lag. We flew Miami 12 noon to JFK, JFK to Amsterdam, to Arusha, arriving approx. 8pm. We purposely stayed awake at least the last half of the JFK to Amsterdam leg until arrival in Arusha, so that we were on Arusha time schedule, tired and ready for a full night’s sleep.
2. Arrive in Arusha 1 day early. Get a good night’s sleep.
3. Arusha National Park - Several activities are available during the day before you meet the group in the evening. We chose to do full day tour of Arusha National park. This was great as we saw the colobus monkey which you do not see in other parks and able to do walking tour where we were close to giraffes, as well as seeing lots of animals. Email Tumain at the Lake Duluti Serena hotel to organize this. Cost is $200 per vehicle (up to 6 people) and around $50 per person to enter park and another $25 per person if you want the walking tour (recommended).
4. Adapter – You need the “G” type plug for all the hotels. We brought a multi-plug adapter which was useful for the European airport layovers.
5. Camera – the longer the zoom the better, at least 600mm. My son had a 40x optical zoom (over 900mm) which was a great advantage in some instances. It is very dusty, so bring a small air puffer to blow dust off the lens and lens cloths.
6. Photos – I am not a professional photographer, but quickly learned to love to set my camera to the scene setting and choose the sports setting. This captured great photos of moving animals where I kept my finger on the shutter and ran off 6-10 photos in rapid succession, then I chose the best shots.
If your camera does not support this, another good option is to take videos, and when playing the video back on your Ipad you can pause the video at a scene or photo you would like, and then snap freeze-frame this photo, which is then added to your camera roll.
7. SD card – we used 1 sandisk 32gb extreme pro, and brought 2 extra cards which we did not need to use. We did not empty out the SD card, as it was not filled despite LOTS of photos and videos.
8. IPAD – We transferred photos from the SD card to the Ipad, using a connecter (Apple connecter sold at BestBuy- maybe can get elsewhere), on a daily basis. This was to backup our photos in case the SD card became corrupted. Plus we could edit our pictures easily on the Ipad and share the photos with others.
This was a much better option than relying on wifi to transfer the photos.
9. Transportation – bumpy “roads” tolerable, small planes and hot air balloon not as scary as was imagined before the trip.
10. Food – some people got the runs, so follow the advice of only bottled water, cover your faucet with washcloth to remind you to not use that water to brush your teeth, eyes and mouth closed in shower, do not eat washed fruit or vegetables, no ice cubes in drinks, and maybe avoid exotic or unfamiliar dishes- just to be sure.
Anyway, Cipro and antidiarrheal Imodium or Lomotil worked very well.
11. Clothing- Colder than you might imagine during July and August, so layers needed. Very casual - do not need anything close to fancy at all.
"Trip of a lifetime" - enjoy
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Woo hoo, I managed a link and it works!
re the long lens, people should remember that the more telephoto you use the more any camera movement is accentuated. I would imagine some sort of support or tripod would be essential.
On my last safari, I used my husband's older camera, some kind of digital, probably bought at Costco a few years ago, it is simple to use and the lens can change distance, I told you cameras don't excite me! My strategy, for reasons that animals don't just stand there and wait for you to take your best shot--- was this--- I took a wide shot, then if the animal was staying put, I zoomed in and took a much closer shot, then and this is very important to me, though others have critised me for this, I put the camera down and look at the scene with my own two eyes, because ultimately that is how my brain will record and remember forever what I am seeing. I went to a Paul McCartney concert recently and from necessity had to watch him on the screen for most of it, I might as well have been watching him on the Telly apart from the electric energy. So enjoy being in the moment without that camera and if you miss the best shot, there is a good chance you will get another opportunity before long, unless it is something like a Serval cat which we were lucky enough to spot, but that's rare. By the way, the drivers take great pains to position the vehicle so that everyone gets a good camera angle and they turn the engine off to prevent camera shake. If it's an extra special scene, like lions, where it can be a bit crowded, if it is just the Tauck drivers, they will each ease forward in turn for a while so everyone gets an equal look.
You can plug in 3 different items such as Ipad, battery charger, and there is separate port for Iphone.
True, camera shake is a problem when fully zoomed out, even when the vehicle is stopped. We were able to rest the camera on the edge of the vehicle if needed extra stability. You can bring a small support (eg bean bag), but we managed fairly well without.
There is really no practical use for a tripod.
There was plenty of opportunity to appreciate the animals with your eyes and to take many photos.
Everything such as booster Tdap, typhoid, hep B, hep A, pneumonia, shingles, annual flu shot, Yellow fever, polio. Most of which everyone should have under their belt anyway, traveler or not.
In fact someone took a tripod when we did the India trip and they even took it on the little boat on the Ganges - took up space and was just not practical because the boat kept moving anyway.
About the tri-pod... no way. Not worth it. I tried a joby gorrilapod (two sizes actually)... which were also useless (too hard to get it right, quickly... cumbersome, etc.).
However, I did also bring a bean bag that was perfect! I brought it empty and gave our driver a few bucks to buy me a bag of rice or beans... I think it was $5 (which was probably $4.50 for him - which was OK with me). It held up beautifully, could be whipped into place in a second and really helped keep my super long lens steady.
This is similar to the one I brought... Grizzly Camera Bean Bag Photography & Video Bean Bag, Camera Support on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-Camera-Bean-Bag-MEDIUM-DARK/dp/B00US4QCWS/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1469837406&sr=8-12&keywords=camera+bean+bag+support --- or --- this one looked good, too... SafariSack 4.2 (No Fill) on amazon https://www.amazon.com/SafariSack-4-2-Khaki-No-Fill/dp/B00LCDRI5E/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1469837406&sr=8-10&keywords=camera+bean+bag+support
We also found that the drivers were very sensitive the the needs of photographers.
Looking forward to our next adventure!