The Okavango Delta, Botswana 2008

Here we are, recovering in Bangkok after another amazing experience in the Okavango Delta region.

On the last trip we self drove from Johannesburg in South Arica to Maun in Botswana and then proceeded through the Moremi and Savuti Parks, culminating with a trip to Oddballs camp in the Delta itself.

This time we chose to head out again with Andy Biggs Safaris, a tenting option, with six other veterans of the Biggs Experience. This was Andy’s first soujourn into this region (and the others), so Sao and I were the only ones who’d been there before. Our previous adventure had been later in the year. This experience in the Delta so close after the rains was going to be a different experience, without a doubt.

We meet up in South Africa at the Intercontinental Hotel outside the international airport. It’s exceedingly handy, but expensive and has slow service. For a quick transit it’s perfect! We meet Al and Trevor with Andy when we are checking in. Susan, Jennifer and Lawrence (our Black Aproned Barista) we meet in the morning before we head out to the Airport for the Journey via Air Botswana. One thing we notice for sure is that we’ve got the least equipment (almost) of anyone. This is an absolute first!!!! We’ll get into equipment and how it all worked out, later.

From minute one, we know we’re in for a good time with this group. It’s a lively lot, with a look of mischief in their eyes.

The Vehicles are quite different from what we’ve used on Self Drives or in Tanzania. These are more the classic style of Safari Vehicle (in my minds eye) and we’re using a 2 persons per vehicle setup to enable each photographer the maximum space for the photographic experience. This is about as good as it gets!!!

In the Picture above, Sao looks like she’s shooting the lid of the vehicle, but she’s eyes only for some Eagles that are circling above.

The Camping arrangements are excellent. Each tent has two beds, a separate area for the “Long Drop” and a shower. Each day we have a warm shower with around 5 litres of water. It’s plenty really and a welcome end to a typically long day! The food is cooked by an able crew (the baked bread every morning is an especially good treat) and they clean the camp and wash your clothes from the day before. Drinks and Tea / Coffee are available all day long (they put most stuff away at night to twart any greedy hyena. ) We’re missing a generator, but that’s really only an issue for one electricity hog. I would have preferred one, but I guess we were more social, not having to mess around with computers and images all night. It’s about as 5 star as you could want. It beats a lodge hand over fist!! The experience is about the experience if that makes sense……. Noises in the night, the rain falling, an outdoor shower with drizzle falling…. perfect!!

Addendum: Sao wanted me to add that we had our clothes washed each day, cold drinks were in the fridge daily and we had morning tea, afternoon tea and sundowners every day and that’s attributed exellently to our overall nominal girth!!!!

Our Guides, Nick, Neil, Adrian (Aidy) and Des (Radio Des) have many decades of experience between them and we used a rotation method so we all traveled at least one day with each guide. Each one is a great personality and adds their own special blend of humour, knowledge and interest to each and every game drive. They are excellent trackers and gave us the time of our lives. I’d recommend them in an instant to any budding Safari Adventurer. An excellent Crew for sure!! We had radios and the cars tended to split up and search radioing in any reports of findings etc.

The flora and fauna were totally different to our last visit. This time around the rains had been voluminous and the grass was high, the plains were green, the game was scattered all across the park (in the arid months they congregate around the water holes) and old tracks were completely covered in water. There was certainly a great deal of bird life around. Young animals were with every group of buck, impala, wildebeest and zebra we saw. It’s good times in Moremi and the Kwai Concessions right now. It’s a beautiful time of year to be there for sure.

The Helicopter ride.

As part of our trip, a Helicopter was chartered for a minimum of an hour per person. The more fiscally liquid of us jumped in for another 6 odd hours, but we opted to drive around instead. The ride was sheer joy. In good light, and with a great pilot (Peter) from Okavango Helicopters, we had an amazing experience to be sure.

The views are breathtaking, and with the doors off, much more can be seen (but not heard). Peter warns us of the noise through the microphone and he’s not kidding. I sit with both legs resting on the skids. With little more than a seatbelt tenuously holding me in, it’s quite a buzz. I heard Trevor ask if it was OK to tape it up. It makes senss I guess. Sao is behind me on the “Business” side, where there are two people shooting. I am behind the pilot. With three people on board, we view different game, so the Photos are quite different. The wind rips at the equipment and tries to make you take blurry shots. It’s quite successful, but in the end we get quite a few goodies. The light was excellent and Peter’s experience shows through as he picks great subjects and gently follows them around. I am using a 1D3 with a 16-35 and a 1Ds3 with a 100-400 and a KS-8 Kenlabs Gyro. It’s quite the setup and I think it helped get the giraffe running at 1/40 of a second. Amazing huh?

A Giraffe runs through the Delta.

The Boat Trip.

After four nights in Moremi, we had a long drive to the new camp setup in the Kwai Concession, a privately owned park, not part of the national system. It sits between Moremi and Chobe National Parks. It essentially spans the river portion of the Kwai, between the parks. Bird life, Lions and game abound here. Just as we left the North Gate of Moremi, there is a boat camp where boats can be hired for travel into the delta. We had two boats, one large, one small. We head up the delta in the small boat and come back on the large one. It was a trip to remember, with sightings of a Situtoga (rare antelope, need to check spelling) and a trio of Lionesses who were about to cross the delta, but were put off by us being there. It’s a special time, without adequate superlatives to describe it. It is so far away from the intensity of Beijing, the bustle and chaos of Bangkok or the muddling fury of Manila that I have been immersed in for so long. This trip was too long coming!!

The Gear – What worked and what didn’t.

We are a canon shop exclusively this year. We offloaded the Hassy/P45+ this year (that’s the subject of a different discussion) and this was the first year where we had 500/4 lenses to take with us.

Rob: 1Ds3, 1D3, 500/4, 100-400, 16-35/2.8. Monopod, KS-8 Kenlabs Gyro
Sao: 5D, 1D2, 500/4, 70-200/4, 24-105

Sao opted for lightweight ancillary gear (she’s a waif) and I took the 100-400 over the 70-200/2.8. This was a great decision. The 100-400 took many of my best shots. One can only wish that Canon got off their arse and did a 200-400/4. A 24MP Nikon D3s and that lens would be a great choice in my opinion. But I still believe a 500, 600 or 800 are a must. Just my opinion!! I used a monopod in the vehicles, which worked out really well. Many of the others had full gitzo / wimberley setups and I think that would have cramped my style (what ever little I have) a bit. It seemed to work for them. Sao chose a lightweight tripod which was banished to the camera rubbish heap. It just didn’t work for her. Unbelievably, Sao either hand held or rested the 500/4 on the vehicle. Her Photos are on multiply where she displays all her great photography!! Sao likes to shoot this way. A 500/4 DO lens would be her ideal I am thinking!! For Sao the 5D was soon replaced by the 1D2 as her main device of photographic agression. The 5D was too slow and the focus points and AF suck in comparison. Also the 8fps of the 1D2 is nice. It looks like we have another 1Dxxx convert on our hands and we’ll be selling the old stuff and making it all 1D3/1Ds3 in the future. For me I had a few issues with the 1Ds3 buffer being too slow, but I managed to change my style a little. If we can get one that holds, say, 30 shots, that’d be heaven!! I am going to test faster cards! The 1D3 was flawless. We had 8GB cards in Sao’s Cameras and 16GB ones in mine. We backed up every two days to the nextoCF M1 (that takes SD cards and CF cards) and overall took around 60GB of pictures. A Light week for us really.

We needed a better bag, and we’ll be test driving Andy Bigg’s new bag soon. It was there in force with some early adopters and we’re keen to try it out. I’d love some Lens armour for putting around the lens when we are travelling. Our system in the vehicle worked OK, we seemed to be comfortable and got the shots we wanted.

Game Drives

The purpose of the trip is to head out on game drives. This is essentially an exercise in driving around and finding stuff to photograph. Here the guides enter into a world of their own. They read the tracks, hear the calls of the birds, the warning calls and the crunching of the animals feet when they are near by. It’s quite amazing. The knowledge base is immense and they are keen to share it. The styles are wildly eclectic and this adds to the interest levels. They’ve been involved with the Planet Earth pictures from Botswana, the Top Gear Special and with many well know Photographers and Cinematographers. With all this knowledge and experience, we’re guaranteed a good time.

I’ll drop some pictures in below, and you’re welcome to check out my PBASE account for the full array of pictures I am showing.