What to Pack for a Self-Drive Safari in Africa: The Gear That Earned Its Place in Zimbabwe
What to Pack for a Self-Drive Safari in Africa: The Gear That Earned Its Place in Zimbabwe
It is properly dark, you are halfway to the long drop, and somewhere off to your left something large is tearing at grass. You cannot see it. You have no idea how big it is, how close it is, or whether it has any interest in you at all. Turns out it is a hippo, grazing away, entirely unbothered.
That is the moment you find out whether the headlamp in your bag was worth its weight.
We spent three weeks in Zimbabwe in September 2025, driving 2,297 kilometres in a hired 78 Series Land Cruiser Troop Carrier through Kazuma Pan, Hwange, Matopos and Mana Pools. Every single thing we used came out of a checked bag, across three flights, Brisbane to Perth, Perth to Johannesburg, then Johannesburg to Victoria Falls.
That changes how you pack. You are not loading a 4WD in your driveway where an extra few kilos means nothing. You are working to an airline allowance, and anything you forget is not a quick trip to the local camping shop to sort out.
So here is the gear we were glad we packed, and just as importantly, what we should have packed and did not. Almost none of this is specific to Zimbabwe. If you are self-driving anywhere in Southern Africa or flying in to pick up a kitted vehicle somewhere else on the continent, the same list holds. We have full reviews on a fair few of these items already and I will point you to them as we go.
Why packing for Africa is different to packing for an Australian trip
Three things drive every decision on a trip like this.
The first is weight. We had 32 kilograms each of checked baggage and did not buy any extra. That sounds like plenty until you start adding up camera gear, a first aid kit, a coffee setup and three weeks of clothes. Everything has to earn its place, and you will find yourself weighing things at home and putting them back on the shelf.
The second is availability. Some of what you take for granted at home is expensive, hard to find, or simply not there. Good coffee is the perfect example. If you want it, you carry it.
The third is that a hire vehicle will not have everything you assume it has. Ours came with a decent kit, but the gaps were real and we paid for a couple of them. We have covered all of that in our post on hiring a 4WD in Africa.
The quick list
Gear we were glad we packed
- USB rechargeable headlamps, one each
- A Leatherman or similar compact multi-tool
- A quality phone mount for the windscreen
- Starlink Mini, with a high wattage 12V USB-C adaptor to run it
- Our Uniflame camping toaster
- The full coffee kit, grinder, AeroPress, insulated press and a kilo of beans
- Packing cubes
- A drawstring laundry bag each
- Full size quick dry sports towels
- AirTags in every bag
- Our own first aid kit, plus a separate medicine bag
- The Tracks4Africa navigation app with offline maps downloaded
- Quick cook pasta packs for sides and emergency meals
- A camera with a bit of zoom, not just a phone
- Binoculars, you won’t regret packing them
Gear we should have packed
- Lightweight hiking sleeping bags
- Good quality inflatable hiking pillows
The gear we were glad we took
USB rechargeable headlamps
If you take one thing from this post, take this one. Headlamps are not optional.
You already know you need one camping in Australia. Add large wild animals wandering through camp at night and the reason changes. It is not about scaring anything off, because a headlamp will not do that. It is about knowing what is around you before you walk into it. That noise behind the tent is usually a hippo eating grass or a hyena looking for scraps, and you would rather find that out from a distance than at arm’s length. Plenty of the national parks campsites have toilets or long drops, and you are walking to them in the dark.
The lighting on our hire vehicle was all spotlights, which is next to useless as camp lighting. Far too bright, and it kills your night vision the moment you switch it off. Headlamps filled that gap completely, and the red or amber setting is worth having for keeping the bugs off you while you cook.
Go rechargeable. One less thing to carry spares for.
- Headlamp being used while cooking dinner
- What's that noise behind us?
- Cooking dinner
A Leatherman, or something like it
I always carry a Leatherman in the 4WD at home and I was glad I packed it. Wire cutters, a very sharp knife, screwdrivers and pliers, all in something that weighs almost nothing.
It came out constantly, including helping a mate sort out a 12V wiring problem. You do not need a big tool roll, and the hire vehicle will usually have basic tools anyway. What you want is something compact you can get to quickly when you need to cut, strip or tighten something.
A proper phone mount
I almost forgot to pack this and I am very glad I did not.
We ran the Tracks4Africa app on my iPhone as our main navigation, which means the phone needs to be up on the windscreen where you can see it. RAM Mounts are the best I have used in any conditions, and I have never had a suction cup let go, even on corrugations that shook everything else in the vehicle loose.
The vehicle did come with a mount. It was not great. Ours stayed put, held the phone steady all day, and never dropped it into the footwell at the worst possible moment. It weighs almost nothing, so take a good one.
Starlink Mini
This was the game changer, and the first time I have been in the African bush with one.
To be clear about what it was not for. We did not sit at camp scrolling social media, and I do not think either of us opened an app like that the entire trip. What it did was let us call home, keep in touch with friends joining us later so we knew when and where to meet them, and know we could reach the hire company or anyone else from places with no phone reception at all. In the parks and out at the camps there is no mobile signal, which is exactly where you are most likely to need help. We felt genuinely secure having it with us.
For the parents at home who also grew up in Africa, a video call from the bank of the Zambezi River was something a bit special.
Powering it needed some planning. We bought a high wattage cigarette socket adaptor with a USB-C output, plus a USB-C to Starlink Mini cable, a few months before we left, then tested it several times at home to be sure it would fire the dish up and run it for hours. It worked without a hitch. Test yours at home, not on the side of the road in Hwange.
Set up was wherever made sense. On the ground, on the bonnet, on a table, whatever gave it a clear view of the sky. We had a long cable so we had flexibility. At Kapula in Hwange we simply ran it off mains power, because the camp has it.
We were away for under a month, so it cost us roughly AUD 90 for the roaming subscription, which was cheap for what it gave us. Plans and pricing change regularly, so check the current options before you go.
Two things to check before you count on it. First, make sure it is licensed where you are going. Zimbabwe has been licensed since 2024. South Africa is not, and has been stuck in a licensing argument for years, so do not plan around it if you are touring through there. Licensing across the region is inconsistent and it changes, so check close to departure. Second, protect it. Ours lived in an Underkover Australia canvas storage bag whenever it was not in use.
Our Uniflame toaster
We have written a full review on our Uniflame Japanese made toaster and it is a cracking bit of camping gear. It folds flat, takes up no space and weighs almost nothing, so it was an easy call to pack.
We are not big bread eaters at home, we usually go with wraps. But bread is much easier to come by in Zimbabwe than wraps are, and it goes stale quickly in that heat. It earned its keep on the Zambezi River with a big group breakfast cook up, freshening up stale rolls for egg and bacon rolls.
It also saved a truly horrendous piece of steak, bought from a butcher we did not know and close to inedible. Four days later we beat it out, toasted stale bread in the Uniflame to make our own crumb, then crumbed and pan fried the lot. That meal will get its own post.
Not essential. But if you own one, take it.
Our full coffee kit
This one is for the coffee snobs, and I am putting my hand up. I need a good coffee in the morning. Life is too short to drink rubbish coffee.
We took the entire kit, packed into an Underkover Australia canvas bag. A Porlex Mini hand grinder, an AeroPress, a double insulated Ovrlndr Travel Press, and a one kilogram bag of Campos Superior beans. We have reviews on the grinder, the AeroPress and the travel press if you want the detail on each.
Coffee in Zimbabwe is hard to find and expensive when you do, so I took my favourite the way I always do. Nobody complained. The grinder does not need power, the AeroPress cleans up in seconds, and the insulated press let us make enough for a group in one go and have it stay hot. A few things that are easy to come by and we highly recommend adding these to your shopping list over there, rusks and condensed milk. Nothing better than a proper African coffee with condensed milk and a nice rusk to dip into that first coffee in the morning, trust me.
Completely unnecessary in the survival sense. Absolutely worth it in every other sense. If you like good coffee and you own the gear, take it, and take the beans.
Packing cubes
After years of my mum telling me to get packing cubes, and me not doing it, she eventually just bought me a few. Now I use them on every trip and bought a few more. She was right, which I am sure she will enjoy reading.
When you are living out of the back of a vehicle for three weeks, being able to find things in your bag matters more than you would think. One cube for t-shirts, one for shorts, one for underwear, one for socks. You pull out the one you want instead of turning the whole bag inside out at the end of a long day.
If your cubes are not see through, tie a different coloured ribbon on each so you can tell them apart at a glance. It also keeps your bag tidy, which sounds minor until you are packing up in the dark at five in the morning for the fourth day running.
A laundry bag each
We added this for the first time on this trip and it was one of the better small decisions we made. A couple of large drawstring laundry bags off Amazon, next to nothing to buy, one each.
They can live in your bag or get thrown on the back seat, and you do not have to think about them. All the dirty gear is in one place, and when someone can do your washing you hand over a bag instead of digging through everything. We now carry one each wherever we go.
Quick dry sports towels
Normal towels are bulky, heavy, and take forever to dry. On a trip where you are flying in and every kilo counts, that is a poor trade.
We bought full size quick dry sports towels, not the little ones, and they were perfect. Fine after a shower or after washing your face, and dry enough to pack away in a fraction of the time. That matters when you are moving every couple of days and you do not want damp towels sitting in a bag in the heat. I now take one on every camping trip at home too.
AirTags in the bags
I originally got these to keep track of my golf bag when travelling, so we already had them. We put them in our checked luggage and in our carry on backpacks.
The point was simple. With three flights and everything we needed for three weeks in those bags, we wanted to know they were coming with us. At each airport we could check they had made it onto the plane and landed where we had. It will not stop something going missing, but it is one less thing to wonder about while you wait on a connection.
Our own first aid kit and a medicine bag
The hire vehicle had a first aid kit and it probably would have been fine. We took our own anyway, the one that lives in my 4WD at home. It does not take up much space, it is not heavy, and we know exactly what is in it and how to use all of it. That familiarity is the whole point.
We also carried a separate medicine bag. See a travel doctor well before you go, six to eight weeks out is the usual advice, and let them tell you what you need for where you are actually going. Antimalarials are generally required for this part of Zimbabwe, including Victoria Falls, Hwange and the Zambezi Valley, but that is a conversation for your doctor.
We did not need any of it, which is exactly how you want that to go. It still made the bag worth carrying.
Tracks4Africa on the phone
This is not a review, but from our research it looked like the best option for what we were doing, and it proved to be. It was not expensive, though you do need to buy the map areas covering Zimbabwe on top of the app.
You get high resolution offline maps, route planning, and the ability to save points of interest and campsites. I planned most of the trip on the web version from home months before we left, then synced it across to the phone. It had most, if not all, of the tracks we drove in the national parks, which is a comfort when you are a long way from anything. Most points of interest were current and it had most of the campsites.
The only issue we struck was a couple of recommended routes that turned out to be private roads. Otherwise it routed us correctly, and on our worst day it had been right all along and we were the ones who ignored it. That story is in our Zimbabwe driving post.
There are other options out there, so do your own research. Whatever you choose, download the offline maps before you leave. Out there they are not optional.
Quick cook pasta packs
Not needed, and still glad we had a few in the bag.
They were good as a side with a nice piece of meat off the fire, and handy as a just in case when a day ran long. All they need is butter, milk, water and a pot. They are almost certainly full of preservatives and all sorts of other things, but for the convenience on a trip like this we did not care, and they weigh nothing.
A camera with a bit of zoom
If you are going to Africa for the wildlife, take a real camera. This is the one where a phone will let you down.
I took an entry level Canon DSLR that is at least ten years old now, with the two kit lenses that came with it. One has a decent zoom, and that is the one that matters. Animals are further away than you expect, and a phone simply cannot reach them.
You can get good photos on a phone. You will not get great wildlife photos on one. You also do not need one of the enormous lenses the keen photographers carry. A few mates have them and they work beautifully, but they are bulky and hard to justify if you are shooting for fun. We swapped between two standard lenses all trip and it worked fine.
We still used our iPhones constantly for video and close up stuff. But for wildlife, sunrises and sunsets, a DSLR earns its space. That old Canon has never missed a beat (the photos in this Africa posts hopefully show that).
Binoculars
Same part of the bag, different job, and this is the one I nearly forgot to write down. Take binoculars.
We keep a set in the 4WD at home and we took a pair with us. They came out every single day we were in the bush. Animals are further away than you expect, and a lot of the time you are just trying to work out whether the shape under that tree is worth driving towards. Binos answer that in a couple of seconds, and everyone in the vehicle can have a look.
They do not need to be fancy. An ok set does the job and costs a fraction of what a serious pair does. On any African adventure they are a must pack.
The gear we should have taken
This is the honest part. Three things we talked about buying, talked ourselves out of, and then regretted.
Lightweight hiking sleeping bags
We came very close to buying two of these when we were kitting up, and not doing it was our biggest mistake.
It is hard to spend a lot of money on lightweight hiking bags when you already have perfectly good sleeping bags at home. The trouble is you cannot take those, because they are far too bulky to fly with. A lightweight hiking bag is the only realistic option, and it packs down to almost nothing.
We had also been told by friends they could sort us out with a few bags once we arrived. We relied on that and probably should not have, because it did not come off. We ended up buying sheets and a thin blanket in Victoria Falls out of necessity, about AUD 135 for gear that was not up to the job.
We paid for that at Kazuma Pan and in Hwange, where the September nights were properly cold and we slept in tracksuits and beanies. If you have joint issues or anything similar, cold nights on a thin mattress make it a great deal worse, and being a side sleeper does not help either. A good sleeping bag would have solved the whole thing.
The one silver lining is that we donated the sheets and blanket to someone in Zimbabwe at the end of the trip, where they will get far more use. If you are in the same boat, do not muck around. Buy the bags.
If you are planning a similar trip but picking up a vehicle in say South Africa, you will have more options, and buying sleepings bags and other gear will be a bit easier. So this really depends on where you are starting from and what is easily available at a decent price.
Good quality inflatable pillows
Same story. We almost bought a couple, then decided against it because we had been told the setup came with pillows. It did, in a sense. They were cushions. Fine for a kid, no good at all for an adult, and we had them for three weeks.
The good news is that inflatable hiking pillows have come a long way. The older ones were just a bag of air and they were awful. You can now get them with a bit of filling in them, similar to a self inflating mattress, that then self inflate. They are comfortable, they pack down small and they weigh nothing.
Check whether pillows are supplied, and if the answer is anything other than a clear yes, assume they are not.
Other Items You Will Need
Some of this will seem obvious. It is here precisely because obvious things are what get forgotten. Check what comes with the vehicle, then assume that everything sitting in your pantry, kitchen or camp setup at home will not be in it. None of the following came with our hire vehicle and I never expected it to.
The good news is that almost all of it can be bought once you land, so it costs you nothing in baggage weight. You will just be buying a lot more than groceries on that first shop.
- Washing up gear –Tea towels, cloths, paper towel, dishwashing liquid, and whatever else you use to clean up the dishes and yourself. We bought the lot when we arrived. Buy a few more tea towels than you think you need, because you will use them constantly and they get filthy quickly.
- Zip lock style bags –Choice was limited in Zimbabwe but we still found some. Not essential, but very useful for loose food, cheese, and anything else that needs to stay fresh once you have opened the packaging. A few small plastic containers would do the same job, but they are bulky, so we bought a few different sizes of zip lock or snap lock bags instead. They were used constantly.
- Rubber bands or bag sealers / clips –I am not entirely sure what these are properly called. We have a set of bag clips at home, the sort you buy from IKEA, that normally live with the camping gear. We forgot to pack them and ended up improvising with a few rubber bands and some spare hair ties. They are for sealing open packets of chips and snacks so everything stays fresh and out of the dust. Pack them if you have them.
- Matches or lighter –Obvious, and exactly the sort of thing that gets left behind because it is obvious. Do what we did and buy a big box of matches when you get there. They are cheap, you will never run out, and whatever is left can go to someone who needs them more than you do when you fly out.
- Bin (rubbish) bags – Something I should not have to remind you to buy but don’t forget good quality heavy duty bin bags. Heavy duty is a must as the chance of a bag splitting in the back of your vehicle with all the bumps and vibrations is extremely high. Always remember, don’t leave any rubbish, everything that goes in with you must come back out and always respect the bush.
- Usual groceries – I won’t provide a list of groceries that you will need but remember many of the basics that you have in your pantry or your setup at home will most likely not be in the hire vehicle. Think of things like salt and pepper, olive oil and anything else you take for granted. You will need to purchase all of these. Again, any leftovers can easily be donated to someone less fortunate that will happily take them off you when you leave the country.
If you are stuck on ideas on what you can cook, have a read through our many camp cooking recipes, you might get a few ideas.
Packing and weight tips
A few practical things we learned getting all of this onto three flights.
- Book all your legs on the one reference or ticket if you can, so your bags go through to the final destination without you collecting and rechecking them.
- Know your allowance and weigh your bags at home. We had 32 kilograms each and did not buy extra, which was tight but workable for three weeks.
- Size matters as much as weight. Anything bulky, like a normal sleeping bag or a full size towel, is the first thing to reconsider.
- Remember a multi-tool has to travel in your checked bag, so do not leave it sitting in your day pack on the way to the airport.
- Test any electronics and adaptors at home, properly, weeks before you go. The Starlink power setup is the obvious one.
- Take good bags for your gear. Canvas storage bags kept our coffee kit and the Starlink protected from dust and knocks the whole trip.
- Pack the right bag. When living out of a 4WD, using a suitcase is a nightmare, don’t do it. You don’t have the space to fully open one. Purchase a large duffle style bag that has one large opening on the top.
Ask the hire company what is supplied, in writing, and assume anything not on the list is not coming.
What we left behind in Africa
Here is the part I did not expect to be writing. I lie, this was something I said to my wife when packing, “how much of this gear do you think will come back with me?”
The coffee grinder, the plunger, the AeroPress, the headlamps and the toaster all stayed in Zimbabwe with mates. The toaster went first, claimed by a friend who loved it so much it was never coming home, and the rest followed by the end of the trip. The sheets and blanket we had grudgingly bought in Victoria Falls were donated too, which took some of the sting out of what they cost us.
None of it was a hardship. It is all replaceable at home and genuinely useful to the people who have it now. It also meant we flew out a good deal lighter than we flew in, which is not the worst way to end a trip. It also have us a little extra space for some momentos that you have to get on a such a trip.
And if you only change one thing off the back of this post, buy the sleeping bags and the pillows. That is the one we would do differently.
What is the one bit of gear you would never fly without on a trip like this, and what have you regretted leaving at home? Let us know in the comments, because these lists only get better with more people adding to them.
For more information on what it is like driving on the roads in Zimbabwe, then read our post here.
Thanks for reading.
The thoughts of Peter.
