Boomer Jerritt - Photographer - Kenya & Botswana 2021

The group will meet up at our hotel in Nairobi for a first-night dinner and a chance to meet your fellow travellers. The hotel that we use has been chosen is for its position between the international airport where you will arrive and the domestic terminal of Wilson Airport which you depart to the Masai Mara from the following morning.

We head to Wilson airport early in the morning to board our private chartered flight to the Masai Mara. We have made the decision to charter all of our flights to maximise the time that we have and also to allow for extra baggage and camera gear for the group.

The flight takes approximately one hour and then we will land at Ol Okiombo airstrip where we will be met by our team of drivers and guides in the customised Pangolin game viewers. We have three vehicles with a maximum of four guests plus one guide in each. The photo hosts will rotate through the vehicles during the safari giving you a chance to learn and receive photo advise from each of them throughout the trip.

Mara Bush Camp is chosen primarily for its location and we will spend plenty of time out in the Masai Mara National Reserve photographing in the areas surrounding the camp. The location is ideal for getting to the wildebeest and zebra crossings for which the Mara is so famous. There are several popular crossing points close to camp.

The tents in the camp are a good size and very comfortable with ensuite bathrooms at the rear and a private seating area at the front. The staff are fantastic as is the food so you will be taken very good care of.

The time in the Mara will involve full day game drives each day which always prove most productive photographically. Picnic lunches will be eaten out in the field – under a tree – in between the sightings.
Along with the crossings the big cats are always a prime photographic target in the Mara and we will spend lots of time with the resident prides of lions (including the famous Marsh Pride) as well as the resident leopards and cheetah. The open plains of the Mara always deliver!

Included in the safari package is a hot air balloon flight along The Mara River one morning. This form of flight is fantastic and a must-do so we have decided to included it in the itinerary for everyone on this trip. Photographing as we skip along the trees metres away from soaring vultures and other birds of prey is quite simply stunning. The control that pilots have is incredible and the Governors Balloons are the only ones that spend the majority of the flight directly over the Mara River. After we land in the Mara Triangle we are treated to a full champagne breakfast at the foot of the escarpment overlooking The Masai Mara. Its an awesome way to start the day. The drive back towards our camp takes us through more lion country and the home of arguably the most famous Big Cat of them all – Scar!

During our time at Mara Bush Camp, you will also have the option to photograph from the air in a privately chartered helicopter. This was a real highlight on previous trips with some startling aerial images being taken. Each one hour flight will be for two clients and one of our photo guides who will be joining you. This is an optional extra that can be added to the safari.
In the evenings we will have use of a dedicated editing area with a projector and screen for sharing images among the group. The  Photo Hosts will be on hand to help with post-production and editing of images in these sessions.

This itinerary is the perfect amount of time for the Mara during migration season and should you want to add other destination we will be more than happy to organise this for you. We suggest perhaps visiting Samburu, neighbouring Tanzania, or perhaps ticking off another item on the bucket list with a gorilla trek in Rwanda. Details of these extensions are in the add-ons tab above.

Day 1 - 4:

The mobile camp is hosted by one of our Pangolin Photo Hosts who will supply you with a camera and telephoto lens and show you how to make the most of every photo opportunity on the morning and afternoon game drives. The same photo host will be with you throughout this safari and the intention is that you will be a far better photographer at the end with an “armoury” of new photographic skills at your disposal.

This safari starts with a game drive through the national park in our custom 8-seater (everyone has a window seat) Landcruiser to the Pangolin Mobile Camp which is based in the North Westerly sector of the park. We make use of private campsites deep in the bush reserved exclusively for our camp. There are five large walk-in tents sleeping a maximum of eight guests (room for a couple of singles) with a dining tent that doubles as an editing area.

Each of the tents has twin (proper) beds with quality linen and a private ensuite bathroom behind. This comprises a toilet, basin and a bucket shower that can be filled to the brim with warm water straight from the campfire when needed. This is “glamping”!

Our chefs are masters at producing delicious meals from the nearby bush kitchen and the support vehicle has enough cold storage to make sure the drinks are always chilled. After dinner, there is time to sit around the campfire and enjoy this true wilderness experience.

The animals of The Chobe are generally very relaxed, which is one of the main reason why photography is so good, and you will often have herds of herbivores like elephants, zebra and buffalo wandering past the camp during the day.

On the fourth day, we will pack up the vehicles and head East towards the Pangolin Chobe Hotel.

Day 4 – 7

The Pangolin Chobe Hotel sits on the plateau overlooking the Chobe River and the Caprivi Floodplains below. Completed in 2018 the hotel has 14 guide rooms and is designed around a wildlife photography gallery featuring inspiring images from Africa and beyond.

With its proximity to the Chobe river, the majority of the game activities are done on the Pangolin Photo Boats with the same photo host who accompanied you on the first part of the trip.

By this time you will have improved your photography and will be feeling confident shooting on the manual camera settings. This will allow you more creative control over your images and we spend more time on the boats perfecting various techniques.

The boats seat 8 people all in a row down the middle with room for everyone to rotate 360 degrees. Each seat is has a custom camera gimbal on which we mount your camera and lens. We tend to use bigger telephoto lenses (150-600mm) on the river than on the game drives (100-400mm) as you don’t need to hand hold the cameras on the boat.

We do twice daily game activities on the river and also one or two game drives on a very productive part of the Chobe that we could not get to from the mobile camp.

In between the activities you can relax at the eco-pool or make use of our air-conditioned editing room at the end of the gallery. Your photo host will be on hand during the day to help you with post-production. Access to computers is limited in the Chobe so we suggest that you perhaps bring a laptop with you for image review sessions. Otherwise, we will give you plenty of memory cards to fill throughout the safari to take your images home with you.

Meals are taken as often as possible out on the deck or the interleading dining room with our fabulous chefs dishing out wholesome meals with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. The evening meals vary from Braai (Barbeque) Nights to gourmet pizzas cooked in our woodfired oven. Most dietary needs can be catered for.

The Pangolin bar on the upper floor has spectacular views and the best cocktails in Kasane and is a great place to relax after dinner with your fellow travellers. Alternatively, the sunken fire pit is always a hit!

On the final day we will either transfer you to the airport if you are heading home or we can arrange extensions at any of our partner properties in Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Please chat to your safari planner about options.