A Word on Binoculars

A few years back, two guests — let's call them Athena and Bill — spent months preparing for their African safari. Spreadsheets, packing lists, the works. The one thing they skipped? Binoculars. "We'll just borrow someone else's," Athena said.

They eventually bought a pair anyway — a small folding set from a department store, sold to them by a salesman who'd never set foot on the out of his home town. Lovely for the opera. Useless in the bush.

One afternoon, lionesses began stalking a herd of eland on an open plain. Tension mounting, the real thing unfolding in front of them — and Athena and Bill couldn't focus their binoculars fast enough to see any of it. They borrowed a fellow guest's pair, briefly, until he understandably wanted them back for his own family to watch the sighting unfold.

The lions made the kill. Athena and Bill missed it entirely.

A decent pair of binoculars (8x42 or 10x42, not a folding opera set) is one of the best investments you can make for your safari — more valuable, in the moment, than almost anything else on your packing list.

Below are some suggestions for you. They are in no particular order, and they all fall in very different price brackets.

1) Nikon Monarch here

2) Celestron here

3) Bushnell here

4) Vortex here

5) Swarovski here

Though it can be pricey, considering what you already spent on your holiday, it is not much. And it really will enhance your experience from so-so to so-WOW. And by the way, neither me nor any lodge I am affiliated with gets any benefit from these mentions, they are merely suggestions to give my guests some guidance.