Your driver with meet you in Kasane and bring you to The Chobe National Park. The Pangolin Chobe Hotel is situated on the hillside overlooking the Chobe River and the floodplains of the Caprivi. The total travel time is around 2 hours and you will arrive at The Lodge in time to check in, unpack and enjoy high tea before heading out into the park on one of the custom photo boats.
Dinner each evening is a set menu with a couple of choices for the main course. This is served in the dining room and if weather permitting out on the pool deck. A selection of wines will be served.
Every day at the lodge will include a morning and afternoon cruise on the river or drive in the park and the lodge will happily supply you with a state of the art DSLR camera and lens should you require to use during these times. You will be hosted by one of the resident photo guides who will be on hand to help you make the best of every photo opportunity that presents itself. You are supplied with all of the memory cards that you need and in between sessions you can view the images taken on the computers by the reception desk.
The photo boats and vehicles take a maximum of eight people and the lodge will try as much as they can to match clients together with similar photographic goals and experience. Refreshments are served during the activities.
During the day and in the evenings you are welcome to relax by the swimming pool or on your private balcony. The upstairs bar offers spectacular views and is a lovely place to relax with a good book. Your accommodation is fully inclusive so if you would like any refreshments throughout the day you need only ask a member of staff and they will be more than happy to help you.
Today there is the option to visit Victoria Falls for the day – one of the seven natural wonders of the world. If you elect to do so you will be collected in the morning from the hotel in an air-conditioned minivan and driven across into Zimbabwe and to the “Falls”. The journey takes around 1.5 hours. You will have time to see The Falls, have some lunch (we have a couple of recommendations), perhaps take a helicopter flight for an aerial view and quickly stop off at one of the many craft stalls before heading back across the border to Botswana. If you don’t want to see the Falls, or perhaps you have visited there already, you will do the same morning and afternoon photo safaris at the hotel as you did on the previous days. The option is yours to decide upon. Please confirm with your travel planner when you book.
Enjoy another day working on your photography skills and enjoying the safari game drives and boat tours.
Getting from The Pangolin Chobe Hotel to Bushman Plains couldn’t be easier. It’s a five-minute drive to the airport and then a one and a half hour flight to the Vumbura Airstrip in The Delta which services the camp. The flight path takes you over some spectacular scenery.
This rustic little camp hidden on the edge of a tree-lined island is a gem in Botswana. It is owner managed and does away with all the unnecessary frills to concentrate on the wildlife experience that the more discerning clientele really crave.
There are five guest tents at the camp making it nice and intimate. There are a central dining area, lounge and a campfire, of course, to enjoy after dinner under the beautiful Jackalberry trees and ultimately the African night sky.
The Bushmen (and women) who own and manage the camp have lived here all their lives and this reflects in the deep understanding of every facet of its ecology. Here people learn about tracking and bushcraft as soon as they can walk and this is what makes the wildlife experience so special at Bushman plains.
The camp has two game viewers and with only eight people in camp at any one time, it means only four clients per vehicle. There are two guides onboard each with one driving as the other one follows the tracks from the “jump seat” on the front. This teamwork is hugely productive. The advantage of having two vehicles is that the group has the option of a drive altogether (there are nine seats per vehicle) or to split off there are different interests and needs within the group.
An additional activity not to be missed is the game walk where your Bushman guide will take time to explain the tracks that you come across as well as the uses for the various trees and plants in the local culture. It’s fascinating.
During the floods (usually from May to October) it is possible to experience that most iconic Delta activity – a Mokoro excursion. This traditional dug-out canoe is punted through the channels by expert “polers” and is a wonderfully serene way to experience the Delta.
The food at Bushman Plains is good wholesome fare served in the communal dining tent and once in a while around the fire on your laps in the traditional Bushman way. The well-stocked bar is always open for business (and complimentary) with plenty of chilled alcoholic and non-alcoholic options.
Please note that there are no cameras available and you will have to have your own photographic gear for this part of the safari.
Enjoy another day in the Okavango Delta!
After one week of early starts and over excitement The Kalahari by its very nature tends to be a slightly more relaxed environment and the perfect third destination for this safari. As a desert, the animals tend to congregate more around the waterholes which makes it the perfect location for some hide photography.
The camp sits on a private reserve bordering the massive Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Here you will find an environment very different to what you have experienced in The Chobe and Delta before. The bush is slightly thicker and thornier and the animals seem to be a little different too as you would expect based on the ecosystem. Oryx, springbok, brown hyena, black-maned lions, jackals as well as cheetah and wild dogs do well here.
The camp is owned and managed by safari legends Ker and Downey and is certainly the most luxurious of the three and by now you will have earned a little pampering. The communal areas of the camp are fantastic and the rooms spacious with private verandas long towards a popular waterhole. The vehicles all have beanbag camera mounts and again is maximum four per vehicle for the game drives.
The waterhole hide at Dinaka is a sunken “bunker type” hide and can seat up to eight photographers at a time. Normally though its used by four at a time. You will be photographing out at water level as the animals arrive to slake their thirst right in front of you. It’s a very special place to be and photograph from.
As a camp Dinaka is very flexible with their timings and earlier starts or later finishes to game activities are all accommodated for to make the most of your time there. One activity not to be missed is a walk through the bush with the resident bushman guides where you will learn about their traditional subsistence way of life from what at first sight appears to be such a stark environment, culminating in a demonstration of traditional fire making techniques and some story telling as the sun sets.
Again during the day there will be the opportunity to have some downtime by the pool or on a snooze with a good book on the deck…..with your camera close at hand in case something appears at the camp’s waterhole of course!
On the last day you will fly to Maun airport, which is an excellent hub, but that need not be the end of your safari. There are daily flights between Maun and Cape Town and even Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, from where it’s a short transfer across the border to South Africa and the wonderful Madikwe!
