This may sound silly but for your first trip the thing to leave home is your preconceived notions of what safari is going to be like. If like many of us you have spent many years reading everything in print about safari, especially if from the golden age of safaris, you will have a certain picture in your mind of how it is. Forget it. Its different than what you imagine. So go with an open mind, stay open to options, and go with the flow as much as possible but dont do things you dont want to do. On my first trip to be truthful I did not enjoy it as much as I should have due to my own notions of safari life. It was still great but I should have enjoyed it more. When I first went in '85 we didnt have all the videos available now which do a better job of preparing the first timer for their safari. I had spent many years reading and re-reading, every magazine article, Ruark, Capstick and many of the early hunters. Most of which was simply not applicable anymore, except the most recent writings, but even they tend to give a certain flavor to "their" hunt that YOU may not experience at all. Only YOU can experience your first safari and it wont be like what you read about because those are someone else's memories. You will make your own. I dont know if you ever read the Charlie Brown funnies and I forget which character said but it was profound, when talking about upcoming events. "The anticipation far exceeded the actual event". This is true of many things in life and it applies here too. Oh I know many will probably write and say oh thats BS. Much depends on ones own expectations, mine were almost impossible to meet. My subsequent safaris's were more fun than my first since I then had some frame of reference and more realistic expectations. Good luck, shoot straight and have a great hunt!
