Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Kavey's photos of Namibia and Botswana safari

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Kavey's photos of Namibia and Botswana safari - June 2001

Hi all I have been wanting to share my photos of my safari last year with readers of this forum but have hesitated because, up till now, they have been posted only on my personal and private internet site, mostly for family and close friends. Today I uploaded all my African photos to ofoto so that I could share them more freely. You will need to register or join ofoto to see the album, though that's incredibly straightforward. Just follow this link and it should be clear. http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=62396601403&n=1677567491 Also, please do add comments for me as you view the photos, the best way is to click the slideview option once you are in the album. All feedback and comments appreciated, and any questions please post here. Kindest Regards Kavey

Kavey: The photos are just stunning. Many thanks for sharing your adventure. Regards ... Ger

Hi Kavey. I am a regular on this site and Ive been reading all your reviews on Africa. Im planning a trip in december and I think the information will be very helpful in making my trip a success (I bet it has already helped a dozen before me!). Will see your pictures now...thanks!

I like your report but pictures technically are not that great. Sorry, I like you and feel that you will uderstand that better to tell how I feel about them than to deliver only positive feedback. Work on it and you will may improve with time. Good luck and thanks for your input here on Botswana

Ino Thanks for your feedback but I think you miss my reason for sharing the photos! I am sharing them with fellow Africa enthusiasts who are interested in my trip and have asked about the camps we visited and the game we saw. I am not trying to sell them or have them published!! The pictures are not professional, and I don't expect them to be in any way comparable in quality with those in brochures or magazines. I wouldn't expect them to be be considered technically great - I am an amateur, they really are just holiday snaps!! I consider them purely as a memory of a wonderful trip. I was actually asking for comments and questions about the places we went to or the things we saw, not feedback on whether my photos were technically perfect, however I do appreciate you taking time to post a reply, thank you.

Kavey, Your pictures are truly amazing. Thanks for sharing them!

Kavey-Help I can't get in. It gets me to ofoto and says I can't get in. I copied the url as you wrote it. What did I do wrong? Liz

Hi Liz The album requires users to be registered with ofoto. Follow the link and when you get to ofoto, use the JOIN NOW button. Once you have joined and signed in, the link will take you straight to the album. Ger, LT, thank you. Any questions about any of the pictures, do let me know. Kavey

Thanks, Kavey. I finally got through by copying and pasting instead of trying to type in the URL address. Those are GREAT!! Just what I wanted to see, although it could easily have been about 150 more. haha. Really great! These are better than most I've seen, including my own. We thought of going to Namibia but we just get too tired after about 7 days of early mornings, late evenings and riding. I'll be happy to just get to Little Mombo. Thanks for sharing, this is really what we all wanted to see. Liz

You are very welcome, and thank you! I am confident you'll love Mombo. We thought we would also start to resent the early mornings but because we also got to bed reasonably early and got to relax during the middle of the day for a shower and couple of hours lazing, we found it OK. Besides, it was sooo beautiful and each new place renewed our energies... Goodness, however am I going to wait till 2004 to go back? Kavey

I just wanted to thank you for everything that you have shared - especially the photos - they are incredible. I've been trying to plan a trip to Africa and stewing over all of the many and equally wonderful options - your descriptions and pictures of Namibia and Botswana have helped quite a bit. I don't think I'll be able to afford (time and money) both places this time around but whichever one I don't see will definitely go on the "lifetime agenda" of desitinations. Thanks again. Jennifer

Jennifer, I'm delighted if my photos have helped you define your plans in any way... I know there are many other fine camps out there, some even more luxurious than Mombo and Wolwedans... But I adored our trip. I'd change two of the camps we stayed at, one at Sossusvlei and I also would skip Chitabe Trails, but other than that, I would stay at the same places again. Infact on our trip in 2004 we are in a muddle because we loved Mombo and Wolwedans so much we will definitely return to those two, we also really enjoyed Damaraland and Vumbura but want to see some more new camps so may or may not return to those two. Anyway, I am glad the photos are enjoyable/ useful. Kavey

Kavey, your pictures are terrific! (I agree with Elizabeth's comments.) What kind of camera did you use? I am going on my first safari - Kenya and Tanzania- with my daughter in November and can hardly wait. Thanks for sharing your pictures and for your other informative posts.

Hi Judi I used a Minolta 505si SLR camera. This is pretty much one of the cheaper newer SLR bodies Minolta sells - I have always had a Minolta body but the old one was heavy and I treated myself to a newer lighter one last year. The new body is no better than the old one in many ways, a few extra features (which didnt come into play on the safari) and much much lighter. My lenses are sigma ones - a 28mm to 135mm which I used 80% or more of the time, and a 100mm to 300mm zoom which I sometimes switched to. Generally for game viewing at Mombo I used the 28-135 as they were so close to the vehicule. I used regular print film, Fuji superia, I prefer it to Kodak, and spent a bit more getting the films processed and printed at a top quality processors rather than the usual cheap supermarket or chemist job. I am sure you will become hooked on Africa too, the game viewing in Kenya and Tanzania is also superb, though there are more tourists so sometimes you become to feel that the animals are looking at the humans than the other way round! It's a beautiful region and the people are generally friendly... Kavey

Kavey, your photos are amazing! Wow. My fiance and I have been tossing around ideas for our honeymoon next year, and safari is now a strong contender. Would you recommend going in June? We can either go right after the wedding, which is at the end of June 2003, or wait until October/November. Any thoughts? Thanks so much for sharing your photos with the board. Not only is the scenery fantastic, but IMHO you take a damned good picture!

Kavey, thank you for sharing the pics of your trip. What a nice mid-afternoon break for me. When you said close you meant close (even with the telephoto lens). We are within a month of trip to Tanzania so you can imagine what seeing your photos did to me. The warthog, the zebra, etc. WOW!! Thanks.

Lizzie Firstly Congratulations! Secondly, here is my outlook on Africa as a honeymoon. When we first arrived in Namibia (where our trip started) we were surprised by how high a % of the (few) other travellers we met were on honeymoon. I'd never thought of a safari as romantic or as a honeymoon option before. So many early starts, moving from camp to camp. I just didn't get it. Let me tell you know that it was the most romantic holiday of my life (and I just returned a few weeks ago from 6 nights in Venice with my husband, who I am still very much in love with). Sitting on the verandah of our Wolwedans Lodge, in the complete silence, and looking up at the night sky to see not only the stars, not only the Milky Way galaxy but OTHER galaxies... Can you imagine? It was just... well... my breath catches in my throat just thinking of it. And moving from camp to camp and the early starts over 14 days never detracted from that initial awe - it stayed with us the whole trip. It didn't take us long to understand those clever honeymooners. We also saw a lot of people who came to Africa again and again, sometimes every year. We thought that was weird too, for the first few days. Now we would go TODAY if we could afford it. Because we chose camps where there were 5 or 6 tents at most (often less) there were usually no more than 10 guests in all. This made it very intimate. As for timing. We went in June, for the last 2 weeks in June. The weather was perfect. There were no mosquitos, though we still took precautions and used strong DEET repellant. There were tsetse fly (which bit me a few times) but they don't carry sleeping sickness in the Mombo area anymore so I didnt panic. The snakes were mostly in hibernation. There were lots of spiders, but harmless. The weather - the early mornings and evenings after sunset were cool, enough to need a fleece over a thin jumper for walking about the camp. Needed extra layers on the drives, as they are open 4WD and the speed makes the wind feel cold. But they all provided these great HUGE blanket ponchos for us to wear in the jeep. I didn't need a coat but I did need gloves and scarf just for a short period. (In Okavango only). In the day it was nice and warm, warm enough to be in Tshirts and warm enough to make use of the outdoor pools in some camps. As for honeymooners, some camps had special honeymoon tents. For example, 2 of the 8 tents in Damaraland camp were honeymoon, here it just meant double beds instead of twins. In Little Vumbura the honeymoon tent had an outdoor bath tub where all others just had showers. One thing you might find offputting is that not ever camp can guarantee you double beds rather than twins pushed together. If this is highly important to you, let the agent know. Because of the time though, most camps except Mombo are running less than half full and you should be OK. I am rambling on forever so please email me for more info. Richard, THANKYOU! Kave y

Lizzie Having trouble posting. Somehow managed to post that reply but posted the old draft rather than corrected version. Not huge differences, but do email me for better info. Kindest Regards Kavey PS Thanks to those still visiting the site, please do feel free to add comments and thanks so much to those of you who have done so.

Kavey, thanks so much for your informative response! I'm sure we could tolerate twin beds pushed together. And June sounds like perfect weather for us, as we are not fans of intense heat. This is so exciting to think about--I loved reading about your experiences.