Best of Chobe Photo Safari

This 7 day Photo safari offers a comprehensive Chobe photographic experience on land as well as the river in one simple and great value itinerary. Three nights at the Pangolin Mobile Camp and then three more at the Pangolin Chobe Hotel.

These safaris are offered on set departure dates of no more than eight clients accompanied by a Pangolin Photo Host throughout. You are also supplied with cameras and telephoto lenses to use for the duration should you require.

Chobe National Park is one of the best year-round wildlife photography destinations in Africa – with endless opportunities of amazing photographs. You have the option not only to photograph from land, but also from custom photo boats on water.

Along with the largest elephant population in Africa along, great predator sightings and spectacular birdlife, there is almost everything that you might want to see and photograph on a safari.

Chobe’s location between two other iconic destinations (Victoria Falls and The Okavango Delta) means incorporating our home into extended safari itineraries is also very easy and something we as a company specialise in.

Day 1 – 4   Your photo safari adventure begins

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     Pangolin Chobe Hotel 

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.