Thought I'd close this off with what I actually did! I got a manufacturer referb 7D (12 months warrenty) for £800 and a new 17-55 f2.8 for £600. Instead of renting I've picked up a second hand 100-400L off ebay and plan to sell it again after the trip (assuming I can part with it) this will hopefully not cost me more than £50 in postage and ebay fees.


I got an early model (98) but I think a good one. it is cosmetically flawless (looks hardly used) and I've done my best to test the image quality, focusing and IS all look as good as I can tell.


The first is a crop, the cats head was enter frame





This one is uncropped





Thank you all for your advice.


I'm now tempted to get a wide angle zoom to capture night skies and wide vistas...