Pictures - Self drive: Nxai Pan, Moremi & Chobe - August 2008
 

I posted a trip report under this title not long ago and I am now posting the link to the pictures to go with the text. Note that there are many pages - you have to click on the page numbers to progress past page 1. The number of photos relative to the text increases after the first couple of pages!

Please keep in mind that, as a self-drive adventure, the report and photos are very much about the journey - it's not just wildlife shots. Yes, there are leopard and lion shots - but also many "journey" photos as well.

If you have ever considered a self-drive through Botswana, this should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.

It is a work in progress - I still have about a week of photos to cover. I hope to finish it in the next few days. Enjoy!

Here is the link!

http://bert-and-bin.smugmug.com/gall...18318816_Pyvk6

Canadian Robin,

Thanks a lot for sharing ...... wonderful website and very nice reading along with the pictures.

Regards
Hari

I had a wonderful time reading your report and viewing your photos. We were in Botswana (Chobe and the Delta) in late August, but stayed at Muchenje and Mapula. It was just great to read your perspective!

Thanks Wakeham! Have you posted so that I may enjoy your perspective?

Excellent Robin! The pictures and the story are great. Too funny you had Robert go back across the river just so you can get pictures of the crossing!
Thanks for posting!

Thanks Matnitskym! At the time, I didn't realize the risk involved. It wasn't until later that day that we met the German couple who had ruined their car at that same crossing. Yikes!!

Haven’t been here for a little while and look what I’ve been missing! Been looking forward to seeing your photos, Robin, it all reads very well together with the report – I’ve just been through it very quickly now and will read it all through again at my leisure!

It certainly does give everyone an idea of what to expect. I love seeing the non-wildlife shots, you have captured the essence of your trip with your pictures as well as your words – I wish I had taken more photos of local life. It’s ridiculous, but I’m getting so envious reading about your trip and what you saw even though we did much the same route, I keep thinking “How did we miss seeing that???” – silly isn’t it? We’ll have to go and do it all again now. You’ve got me reaching for the map to follow your loops and detours.

I’m still surprised at the amount of water you encountered at that crossing, we didn’t go through anything like that. Funny, my husband thinks he’s the only one who has to do things like that twice/three times so I can get a photo!

Unlucky with the baboons at Ihaha, we certainly didn’t see the troop of 30+, just the one, which was relatively well-behaved. The honey badger was some compensation. Hope campsite #6 was better. Waiting to hear more ...

Favourite photo (so far): Sunset on the road to Third Bridge (elephant) – very atmospheric. I’ve just been to the Wildlife photographer of the Year exhibition in London today and I can honestly say that a photo like this stands up to some of the photos in the competition – maybe also because it takes me back to those spectacular sunsets ..... (sigh)

What about trip reports for the Kgalagadi and Namibia too, please?

And can we see details of your finalised itinerary for Kenya & Tanzania next year?

Thanks again for sharing the trip with us.

It's true - you can miss so much in just a few days away from this forum, can't you?

Funny - I was feeling envious of your trip - how did we miss those leopards and cheetahs in Moremi?

The baboons on site 6 were better - more to follow shortly!

The ellie at sunset is one of Robert's favourite - I believe he is using it as his screen-saver at the moment.

I will eventually (probably after Christmas!) be doing trip reports for the SA and Namibia part of our journey. I started with Botswana so that I could get the report to Safari Drive for their website. So much to do...

The itinerary is posted on this forum under "Input needed - Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania itinerary" - we have pretty much decided to drop the Rwanda part of the trip - it was going to cost almost CDN$10,000 (with Nairobi-Kigali flights, the tour and the permits) - a lot of money for 2 hours with the gorillas. We decided we could see a lot of southern Africa on another trip for that amount. So - we will fly into Nairobi and start the self-drive to Maasai Mara.

Glad your enjoying the site. I am looking forward to reading more on yours. Robin

Robin,

Thanks for posting your photos and report. I'm glad you found SmugMug easy to use.

I have looked through almost all of the photos, but haven't done all the reading yet so I'm sorry if you answered this question, but...how did you use the toilet in the middle of the night if you needed to??

A self-drive looks and sounds wonderful, but I'd be a little concerned about that. Also, it looks like you stayed at campgrounds? I didn't see any other people around....were there actual camp sites?

The photos are incredible and they have certainly made me wan to go check out Botswana!

-Carrie

Hi Carrie! If we had to get up in the night, we just stayed very near the 4x4 and we scanned the area before going out with our floodlight.

We were in national park campsgrounds but the sites are well spaced. We certainly never felt that we were alone - just nicely on our own - if that makes sense!

I'll pass your photo comment on to my husband - he takes most of the photos - I keep the journal! Robin

More great photos & commentary. I love the sunrise photos – how did you get the wildlife to pause just in the right place for you? Robert has caught some of the birds in movement particularly well, the colours of the fish eagle with the tiger fish really shine out. Did you mention anywhere what camera he uses? As for the 3 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' baboons ... cute? I don't think so, they look like the little devils they are with those red shiny eyes.

The village tour looks good, I am usually a bit reticent to do these ‘cultural’ visits, in case they are intrusive, but you seem to have been warmly welcomed.

Since you had the best room on the houseboat (belated Happy Anniversary!), were your houseboat companions happy with their rooms, I’m assuming they must have been a bit smaller?

Keeping an eye out for the next installment. I think you keep adding bits to the first part too (the map is good) so I'll be reading it through again to make sure I don't miss any juicy bits.

Robert uses a Nikon D80 - he has a birthday coming up and I think a new (telephoto) lens is in order!

Robert does seem to have good luck with sunrise pictures - perhaps we are up so early that the wildlife just isn't moving too quickly at that hour!

I usually hesitate with village tours as well. I find them very awkward. I suspect the advantage of this tour was that not many tourists make it to this village - it is in the middle of nowhere and only accessible by boat. We were as much a novelty to them as they were to us. It was great - a highlight of the trip.

I felt a tad guilty about the bigger room on the houseboat. Somehow it seemed disrespectful to our shipmates, who were all older than us. There were a couple of comments when we boarded, but all in good fun! All the rooms were lovely, which helped.

Yes, I do keep sneaking things into the pages that I have already completed. I keep thinking of things that I have overlooked - like the map. Duh! I am almost done - just a couple of more days - we leave for Canada via Livingstone.

After Christmas, I will start the SA and Namibia reports. Robin

You have the field guide for self drive here.

Beautiful sunsets and the Chobe River always comes through with an elephant herd. Lots of nice people shots and the ground hornbill and lilac breasted roller were good bird pics. I liked the fighting giraffes. Standing on top of the landrover must have produced some good sightings.

Thanks Lynn! The photo credits go to my husband - he takes most of the pictures. The giraffe necking was one of our most memorable breakfasts.

I am embarassed to say that it took us a few days to think of climbing up on the roof of the 4x4 to have a look around. Duh! That's how we spotted the leopard.

The trip report and photos are now complete! Robin

Wonderful photos, great captions/explanations. Thanks for sharing these!

Glad you got up there in time for the leopard. Forgot to mention, it's nice to see a Fish Eagle with a <b>fish</b>.

Me too! I thought Robert was kidding when he called down to say he had spotted a leopard.

We cheated a bit with the fish eagle - with the Ichobezi staff feeding the fish to the birds! Robin

Hi Robin,

I finished reading your trip report and it makes me want to go on a self-drive! Awesome!

Just wondering, do you think someone would realistically be able to do this type of trip alone? I don't even know if the company accommodates single travelers, but I thought I'd ask your opinion before I make any inquiries.

Oh, and I don't have any experience &quot;off-road&quot; driving except the beach, but I would look into a training class...and I do drive a stick-shift now so I'm already ahead there (although if I have to shift with my left hand, that could be interesting).

Carrie

Hi Carrie! I certainly wouldn't have wanted to do it on my own - I needed the reassurance of knowing that Robert could drive me out in an emergency and vice versa. Mind you, we are probably considerbaly older than you! :-) Also, it would have been far more tiring not to have someone to share the workload (setting up, cooking, packing up etc) with. It would certainly be possible - I can't think of anything that one person couldn't do on their own - but probably not a good idea. If you were to get stuck in deep sand - and lots of people do - it would be difficult to get yourself out. Robin

Robin, thank you for your opinion. I think my problem comes in when I think of sharing that little tent with someone - even if I knew them well (none of my friends or family would do this in any case).

The worst experience of my recent safari was the person I went with and I refuse to let that happen again. Darn, it's hard to be alone in your 30s...especially if you like these types of trips ;-{

Carrie