Weather, no comment since I hunted in Limpopo this year and the weather was glorious. I did wear long pants every day. No shorts and was quite comfortable. Take two guns. It is literally just as easy to take two as it is to take one. I place a 375 and a 308 each in their own soft case and then put both soft cases into my large hard case for transport. That package weight about 40lbs. Think of the guy whose rifle fell off the Land Cruiser at 50mph and broke in half! A spare is nice to have. For PG either with work fine. My 308 with 180g bonded bullets took five animals all with one shot kills. The 375 worked great on a world record book Wildebeest with three shots using Barnes 300g TXS. Tough critters. The rifles that come home as veterans of your first Safari are going to be prized heirlooms. Take two!
For my 2025 trip we are hunting Limpopo again and Free State where some shots could be longer so I am leaving the 308 at home and have set up a long range specialist 30-06 using 180g Swift Sciroccos and it is very accurate, capable of 400y shots but I plan to limit shots to 300y more or less if possible. Using a 3-16x optic. Am also taking the 375HH for use on Cape Buff and possibly some of the larger PG game as well. It is also accurate out to 400y but will be limited to 200y for hunting PG and 100y for Buff.
Cameras. I have a nice SLR but left it at home. I was hunting and cannot take photos and carry a rifle. I did take a compact Canon digital camera but 95% of my pics were all taken with the cell phone. Unless a wife, girl friend or best bud is tagging along to do the photography, I would leave the big SLR at home. It is dead weight.
I have three pairs of nice hunting shorts but when I weighed my checked bag, it was about 2lbs over the 50lb limit so I left all the shorts at home and did not miss them. I did not take a coat at all for the same reason. I did take two hunting vests and three hats and both long and short sleeved shirts. Each day, I started with a tee shirt (long or short depending on forecast highs) under a long sleeved button up shirt with the vest as the outer layer. About noon, I would peel off the long shirt and put it in my pack and wear the vest all day. Fingerless gloves were worn in mornings and on night hunts when it is colder. I was never cold. Further south could be a bit colder depending on the altitude at your concession. Ask the PH for advice. For Free State, my PH suggested I bring a coat. I will likely carry a light fleece coat only.
You do not need tons of ammo unless you are a bad shot. 40rds per gun is more than enough x2. I shot a total of 9 rds per rifle and most of that was in sighting them at the range since one was off a lot. I shot 8rds at the range and 10 rds in the field. Total of 18. With you use of very popular calibers your PH should have more ammo in a pinch for either 30-06 or 375HH. I took 90rds this year and that was all I could carry and make max weight. I left half of it in Africa with my PH. Next year I will take two boxes of 30-06 and one box of 375 for a total of 60rds. Even that amount is way too much. May reduce it to total of 40rds.
We had zero issues with ticks, flies or other insects in Limpopo, but ask the PH about your sector. My two rifles below. One is optimized for longer shots but capable of short shots. The other is optimized for short shots <100y but capable of longer if required. Stick with one bullet weight for each and memorize the ballistic chart for both.
