Botswana Tour Trip Report, December 2009. Part 1

December 2009 was a good month for C4 Images and Safaris. Firstly we had a 2-week safari to Botswana and then it was Christmas holidays for us!

We wont write about the holidays, but we do want to share with you a great photo tour to the Okavango region of Botswana. Ill document each day as the tour went along.

The tour was led by Shem Compion and Greg du Toit. There were 7 clients and between us we had 3 private vehicles for our sole photographic use.

Part 1:

Day 1
Arrival started in South Africa and the first game drive started in Rietvlei Nature Reserve, near Pretoria. This allows visitors to see and photograph species they wouldn’t see in Botswana. Thus the first day started with black wildebeest, blesbuck and white rhino as the new species to be seen. Of course the highveld birds were in full song and this allowed us to see a few grassland birds.

Day 2
The flight to Main is hot, but the reward is worth the heat. Kwara camp greeted us with its open lagoon filled to the brim with hippos. It set the scene for the afternoon game drive; which led us straight to a large male lion. He had been mating and lost his mate. So we followed him as he roared away trying to contact his lioness. The soft evening glow of the late afternoon glanced off his mane beautifully, allowing for some great portraits. A great start to the tour!

Day 3
Our morning drive started photographing plains game- and even a fungus growing out of elephants dung was photographed at teatime! The afternoon turned very dark with overhead clouds and didn’t offer us much until sunset, when we witnessed one of the most stunning sunsets of 2009. It certainly was also the most photographed sunset in Botswana!

Day 4
Oh my what excitement wild dogs bring! We discovered them early morning running along as they do. For a frantic hour we followed them across floodplains, mopane bush and into apple leaf thickets. They provided an assortment of photo opportunities, making all us photographers very happy.
This afternoon we transferred to Camp Okavango, or Camp-O as it is known. It’s a water-based camp, with our focus being birds, hippos and macro work.
The first afternoon was off to the Hippo pool, where we watched a small pod snorting away in the golden afternoon light.

Day 5
This morning’s focus was the remotely located Godikwe lagoon. Godikwe is the largest breeding colony for marabou storks as well as one of the most important heronries for egrets, herons and other storks. The colony for some reason was not nearly as large as it has been in former years; however, it still provided some excellent opportunities for large birds at close quarters. The beauty of the location is that due to its remoteness, the birds don’t know humans on the island and thus allow you to come really close to them. The photography was excellent, but just being so close to a variety of bird species and seeing them interact was a real highlight.
The afternoon was one of the most relaxing game drives ever taken! It was time for the Mokoro ride on the shallow waters of the delta. Gliding along in a mokoro, is one of the most under rated experiences of the Okavango. It is a silent, smooth ride that makes you concentrate on the essence of the delta. The cleanliness of the water, the thousands of tiny fish, the way the water lilies wind their way up from the bottom and the tiny reed frogs clinging perilously to the reeds all combine to give one of the most serene experiences ever.

Day 6
The last day at Camp O was one concentrating on birds, with the odd hippo thrown in for good measure. The technique was to glide slowly down the reed lined channels approaching birds slowly and quietly. It does seem that the real insect bloom hadn’t occurred in our area yet, as the normal sheer number of birds weren’t evident. However, our persistence paid off and we managed to get good images of slaty egret, squacco heron, African darter, white-throated bee-eater and the beautifully marked malachite kingfisher. The day ended with another splendid sunset overlooking a shallow lagoon. To cap it all off, 30 wattled cranes flew in to roost in the shallows just at sunset, prompting us to all drop the drinks and set up the cameras!

Day 7
From Camp O it was up north to the refurnished Lebala camp on the edge of the Linyanti swamp. We started with a bang, as a young leopard stalked in between thickets in search of prey. The most exciting scene being when it chased an African wild cat right past our vehicle! After the excitement, the leopard went on the search and with some good positioning, we managed to predict it moving onto termite mounds to scan, providing us with some beautiful photo opportunities!
From there it was off to the waters edge where we photographed waterbirds and hippos in abundance. Another excellent days photography.