Having perfected the art of packing the right clothes for the right destination, spent years honing my skills to travel as light as possible, and circumnavigated (ridiculous) liquid restrictions as far as reasonably possible, I’ve come to understand that the most important to travel to Africa is to have a suitable suitcase.
It doesn’t help if you’re a wizard in the art of folding clothes into wrinkle-free, super-flat, and even more super-organized piles if the bag you’re putting everything in is a complete dinosaur and should have been put out to pasture with the Cretaceous period.
And all the clever arrangement of carefully weighed clothes and cosmetics is for nothing if your bag tips the scales more than King Kong with the Empire State Building in his left hand and a distraught blonde in his right!
So. Luggage is key to a successful and stress-free trip. Right? Well, he certainly has his part to play.
The eternal dilemma I face is whether I should head to the exclusive luggage store and shell out big bucks for a super-efficient, as light as possible, sing-and-dance designer brand, or select the cheapest piece of junk. luggage that I can claim at the local supermarket. The reason I ask this question is that when you travel as much as I do, you soon realize that airline baggage handlers don’t distinguish between designer labels and don’t care about price tags – your bags are filled by complete, whether or not you paid a small fortune for them. or got them in the bargain bin for less than cost.
So the question you really need to ask yourself is “will my bag stand up to the rigors of modern airline travel?” IMO there are two answers to that: “rarely” and “only on a good day”.
Let’s first assume that your luggage arrives at the same destination as you, on the same flight as you. These days, it seems like many major airlines are having trouble routing bags to the right place at the right time. So, always be grateful when you see your bag on the carousel, assuming, of course, that there is a carousel at your destination airport. And a word to the wise, a lot of international safari destination airports don’t have carousels, but jolly men who literally toss your bags through little holes in the walls onto the floor or crudely carved countertops.
Your suitcase, when you say goodbye to it when you check-in at your departure airport, which is usually from the first world, will be treated like a bag of chips by most of the people who handle it from that moment on, since whether they are first, second, third or third world. aliens!
Be careful: fragile stickers do not work. I’ve lost count of the number of times my “fragile” bag has turned upside down and shattered on a carousel or at the bottom of a huge pile of luggage teetering dangerously on the back of a tractor and trailer. Nothing works except sheer luck and the chance that the person handling your bag has a vague idea that its contents are actually valuable.
So. Spending hundreds or thousands on the best of Louis Vuitton or the latest Antler miracle is not smart. I tried the cheap and cheerful approach, but found myself buying shares in the local ‘el cheapo’ luggage shop, so I decided to go for a good middle-of-the-road bag: Travelite’s ‘iSpot’ range of duffle bags.
The first thing to be aware of on most safaris involving small planes as connecting flights is that a) they usually have a weight limit of around 15kg and b) they require soft, squishy bags that can be squeezed into small spaces, not huge stainless steel megalodons filled with everything but the kitchen sink!
My iSpots are smooth, relatively lightweight, and have a built-in wheeled handle, which means I don’t always have to search for a cart. Their zippers are hidden and they all have locking devices (many lightweight bags only have locking springs on their main zippers and not on the side pockets, which irritates the hell out of me!).
They’re sturdy, rugged, and roomy enough for two-week trips or small enough for a couple of days here and there.
Fully packed, I rarely exceed 15kg in my main bag and carry a backpack with me for cameras, binos, netbook and in-flight necessities. However, despite this, my main iSpot duffel bag, which cost me over R1500 (about 150 euros or $200) has been replaced three times in the last two years by three different airlines, thanks to cargo handlers luggage was damaged.
So once you have a bag that’s light, soft, strong, tough enough, and roomy enough, it’s only a matter of time before it’s damaged by an airline or its handlers.
Apart from that, the volume of your bag should be taken into account. My large duffel bag has a capacity of 71 litres, which is about average. There are some great duffel bags, especially those designed for diving or adventure activities, that offer more space, but remember that a well-packed soft bag is better than a loose one because it keeps your belongings from rolling around and getting damaged, and your cosmetics or bath from hitting and spilling its contents on your clothes.
A wet bag is a great idea for cosmetics and I always take the extra precaution of placing it in a regular grocery bag and tying the handles securely to prevent unwanted spills.
I decant things like shampoo and moisturizer into small containers, or buy them in small bottles to start with (The Body Shop, for example, has some great small bottles of products that are great for travel).
At the end of the day, your choice of bag is peculiar to you and your needs, what you want to put in it and where you’re going. Whether you spend a lot of money on it or not, just make sure it’s secure with decent locks or, failing that, cable ties. Never put anything of value in it (jewelry, cameras, computers, cell phones, etc.) and if it is damaged by airline baggage handlers, be sure to stand up for your rights and have it repaired or replaced.
Have a good trip!;)