A Photographic Safari

My next stop was Botswana. I was picked up at my hotel and driven across the border to the Chobe National Park near Kasane where I stayed at the Pangolin Photo Safari Hotel. 

I’m going to pause for a moment for a PSA for my photog friends. If you want to learn, develop your skills or just have an amazing guide- look up Pangolin Safaris. They are amazing. I learned so much while I was there. They also have good cameras with 600mm lenses for guests to use. 

I arrived in lots of time for the afternoon safari. We had a photo guide (Charl) and a game guide (Dan) and we went out on a boat on the Chobe River. It’s an amazing way to go, and our boats had the seats single file with swivel mounts and camera mounts so everyone had a great view. 

Birds are the easiest thing to hunt along the river, they are plentiful and brightly coloured. There are also lots of hippos. Mostly it’s just eyes and ears above the surface but we saw a few playing and rough housing in the water.  We also saw some elephants and crocodiles in the water. 

Some how every day just kept getting better.  It’s hard to separate the days now- I spent four nights in Chobe. Almost all of it was on the boat, we did one game drive in the park where we saw (sort of) lions.  Just little heads in the grass in the distance. But still exciting. 

We saw so many elephants, baby elephants and toddlers and the whole family. And let me tell you one thing that trancends species- boys playing in the water will always try to drown each other.  We literally spend hours watching three elephants playing and splashing and grappling trunks. It was amazing. 

We switched up guides too, and I was lucky enough to get Guts who is one of the owners and an amazing photographer. You’d think it was a bad thing the morning we got rained out of the drive, but we spent the time instead learning more techniques and about editing. 

We spotted 7 different kingfishers, rare birds on the Zambezi, fish eagles fighting over food, more elephants playing, sunsets and close encounters with crocs and hippos. 

And all the while the guide is giving tips, answering questions, telling jokes. And every so often orders everyone to put their cameras down, too look around and just take in the moment. 

I can’t gush about this place enough, 10/10 would recommend it. And they also have a house boat you can stay on that they will cruise up and down the river!

And in between all those moments, was meals being served family style at big tables, amazing friendly staff, and a fantastic cook who can also put on an amazing show.