Botswana, located in the heart of Southern Africa, is a land of amazing contrasts where vast deserts meet lush deltas and vast savannas. Through careful management of its natural treasures, the country has become a top destination for safaris. In this article, I will cover my trip, the places I visited, and my gear. (Part 1 of this series can be read Here,
logistics
We spent eleven nights in tented camps, two nights at the beginning of the trip and one night in lodges on the return. This choice allowed for maximum immersion in nature, creating an unforgettable, off-grid experience without electricity or running water. Starry nights, the roar of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, and the grunting of hippos near our unfenced camp provided truly precious moments, as did breakfast before and after dinner and relaxing around the campfire.
The local organization managed every aspect of our trip flawlessly. Nico, our extraordinary guide and driver, mastered the challenging, very sandy and muddy tracks in Botswana (self-driving is not recommended here).
A skilled guide is essential, with knowledge of animal behavior, tracking abilities, and the ability to exchange information with other guides via radio. All told, this greatly increases the visibility of animals. In close encounters with potentially dangerous animals such as elephants or hippos, the guide’s ability to interpret the animals’ behavior can avoid risks.
The crew ensured both safety and comfort, providing everything from hot water for morning washing to post-safari showers, laundry, campfires, and expertly setting up and dismantling our camp as we moved between different areas. Chef Keiji creates incredible dishes cooked over an open fire, even including vegetarian lasagna! I want to emphasize the dedication and professionalism of these individuals.
For this reason, and because of the country’s difficult economic situation, it is important to adequately compensate your guides for their hard work. This is not just a matter of tipping: I advise photographers to try to book directly with local organizations, avoiding Western middlemen who often keep most of the money for themselves rather than distributing it to locals.
Regarding temperature in August, we experienced minimum temperature of 8-10 °C and maximum temperature of 34-36 °C. A warm, windproof jacket is recommended for morning safaris. I recommend wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, which also help protect the skin from the hot sun. We had no rain in two weeks – in fact, no clouds – and no mosquitoes, not even on the rivers. But there were a lot of insects there.
Chobe: Kingdom of the Elephants
Chobe National Park, globally renowned for its extraordinary elephant population, is Botswana’s main attraction. More than 120,000 elephants, especially during the dry season, gather along the banks of the Chobe River to drink and cool off, creating an unforgettable sight of the herd moving gracefully. Apart from elephants, the park is also home to large buffalo herds and a significant population of hippos, lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas.
The northern part of the park, especially along the river, is perfect for boat safaris, offering a different perspective on the wildlife than game drives. However, the most popular formula is the sunset boat safari with beverages, which is a tourist experience with lots of people and boats, and often a lack of respect for the animals. I didn’t love it, but it might serve as a relaxing introduction to the wonders of Botswana after a long flight.
Chobe’s charm extends far beyond its popular riverbank. The true essence of the park, and the reason for its fame, is revealed by visiting less-frequented areas, such as the path to Savuti (or Savuti itself). In a single day in these more secluded areas, we saw a hunting leopard, a dozen lions, countless hippos, and hundreds of elephants. This was a testament to the park’s extraordinary biodiversity away from the main tourist crowds.
Savuti: The Survival Challenge
Inside Chobe National Park lies Savuti, a safari icon renowned for its wild and unpredictable character. The mystique of Savuti is further heightened by the Savuti Channel, a waterway that mysteriously appears and disappears at irregular intervals, constantly reshaping the ecosystem. Its last flood occurred in 2017, after a 30-year drought in 2010. When filled with water, the channel turns the area into a lush wetland, attracting huge herds of birds and their predators. However, most of the time, the channel remains dry, forcing animals to seek water holes, as seen in Etosha, Namibia (but Etosha is even drier than the Savuti region).
Savuti is particularly famous for its lion and hyena populations. While the dry season turns the plains of Savuti into a “golden sea” of tall, yellow grass, during the wet season it is a feeding ground for herds of zebra and wildebeest. These herds become primary prey for the resident hunters, making for a thrilling but brutal hunting spectacle. We were lucky enough to see lions daily and even saw a leopard here.
Khwai: an ecosystem apart
Khwai, a private concession area within Chobe (east of the Okavango Delta and north of Moremi), offers a unique safari experience with a more intimate and less regulated environment than the national parks, allowing both night and walking safaris.
The Kwai River, a tributary of the Okavango, is a center of animal activity, attracting many species. In particular, it is home to significant herds of the elusive and captivating wild dog, an outstanding animal with the highest prey score among African hunters – although today, it is endangered due to depletion of its ecosystem.
The rich vegetation and wetlands in this area provide an ideal environment for leopards, elephants, hippos and a variety of bird life. We saw lions daily, often with cubs, but the most interesting show was the central role of the river in the lives of the animals, especially the elephants. As the dry season progresses, elephants move away from the river to forage, returning each evening to drink, cool off, and bathe in the water and mud.
I remember two unforgettable scenes here. One of these involved a large male carefully preparing mud in a hole by drawing water from the river, stirring it with his trunk and feet, and then coating himself with the resulting abundant mud to protect his skin. Another showed teenage elephants pushing and pulling each other in a river. These truly incredible scenes are reminiscent of the phrase I saw on the back of a jeep: “Animals are just beautiful people.” I firmly believe that this is absolutely true.
Moremi: Pearl of the Okavango Delta
Moremi Game Reserve is a protected area located within the Okavango Delta, an oasis of life in a largely arid region. The delta is a unique phenomenon in the world, a large wetland fed by a river that does not flow into the sea, but flows into the Kalahari Desert (more on this below) First part of this articleMoremi is a mixture of savanna, swamps, dry land islands, water channels and forests with very tall trees, which is a spectacular sight in itself. This contrasting landscape has one of the highest concentrations of wildlife in all of Africa. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, buffalo and hippos co-exist in an incredibly rich ecosystem.
Sadly, during our visit, water levels were unusually high, for which we were punished as many open areas were flooded and therefore inaccessible to us. So we were forced to live mostly in the forest. Another reason to return here!
photography equipment
Anyone who follows my work on Photography Life probably already knows the kit that I had with me:
- Two Nikon Z9 bodies
- Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4: rarely used
- Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S: A star, as always
- Nikon Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S: Excellent, but for this destination and with the atmospheric conditions encountered, it is perhaps a bit long (thermal gradients often greatly affect sharpness at 840mm) – 400mm f/2.8 + TCs or a flexible zoom might be a better choice.
To meet weight restrictions during flights, I packed the lenses in a Kiboco 30L backpack, while I carried the two camera bodies in a laptop bag. I brought my bean bag, which is invaluable when working from a jeep, and a general list of items like extra batteries.
conclusion
Botswana’s parks offer a unique immersion in nature for the avid nature photographer wishing to visit them. In these two weeks, I’ve only managed to scratch the surface, and I’m eager to return.
I hope you enjoyed these articles and the accompanying photos. Comments or questions are always welcome.
