Botswana’s Chobe river weaves its photo safari magic

‘Believe me my young friend,’ says Rat to Mole in Kenneth Graham’s‘’Wind in the Willows’’, ‘there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats’…

…and when the boat is a Pangolin photo boat on Botswana’s famous Chobe river, with eight eager wildlife photographers sitting pretty with cameras cocked, the set-up completely stable on the boat’s in-built tripod mounts, with a skilled and knowledgeable driver on board, not forgetting a coffee box in the mornings and a full cooler-box in the afternoons, then we’d have to agree. And so it was on our final visit to the Chobe for 2018. It was going to be tough at the end of our time on the water to wave goodbye until next year to a such a wonderfully serene way of approaching wildlife closely; one of the most rewarding (and comfortable) ways to photograph African wildlife we can think of.

African skimmer ‘skimming ‘- a Chobe ‘special’ photography target, though tough to nail

We certainly had the shortest of morning commutes to good subjects from our houseboat HQ with moorings perfectly situated for the small island where breeding skimmers, a Chobe special, tested our abilities to freeze perfectly the split second the lengthened lower mandible of their neatly adapted bright orange bills hit the dead calm water in the creamy gold light.

This curious leopard cub was one of a trio waiting for us at the end of a memorable afternoon boat ride

Then there was the short sail home at the end of play on the never-to-be-forgotten afternoon we found ourselves staring down the barrels of our lenses at not one, but three glorious leopards reclining in the open on the riverbank, allowing us to frame clean shots of their graceful beauty until the light was done (see our previous blog). We’re all still pinching ourselves over that one. Given we were treated to a fabulous leopard sighting in gorgeous light on our two-centre Chobe- Zimanga safari earlier in the year we’re feeling particularly spoilt by the Chobe in 2018 and, needless to say, still have spots before our eyes!

African skimmer courtship is an aerial ballet that’s as tricky and compelling to photograph as the ‘skimming’ itself

Sadly, our memorable leopard encounter wasn’t to be repeated, but the masochistic skimmer photography was. ‘Shooting’ skimmers became a strangely addictive pastime particularly as Laskey, our photo-boatman during the houseboat leg of the trip, knew the best spots for these iconic birds and had all the best angles for positioning and beaching the boat to hold it steady.

We’re skimming, we’re skimming, we’re skimming, we’re skimming, we hope you like skimming too

Even with the stage set fair, and great lighting conditions to boot, it was still tricky predicting which of several birds careening around in the air would swoop down and ‘skim’ the surface. Locking focus on in time was maddeningly difficult. The boat was filled with the sounds of frustration and occasional smug, self-satisfaction (if there’s a noise for that) when some of the group proudly announced they’d nailed a skimming bird and its reflection or even a bird with a tiny, silvery fish. With near bleeding eyes and aching muscles this certainly proved the tough, but fun, way to earn our mid-morning coffee on the river.

This African fish eagle in Elephant Bay was so busy enjoying his bath that he allowed an extremely close approach

Luckily there were plenty of chances to hone our flight photography for the skimmers, with a good number of obliging fish eagles (not just flying, but hovering and even bathing very close to the boat). Add to this numerous assorted waterbirds including yellow-billed storks, an array of herons and egrets, spur-winged geese, white-faced whistling ducks and African openbills; one of which trailed a long strand of nesting material behind him that looked for all the world as if he was sky-writing. Sadly, no-one on the boat spoke ’openbill’ to translate his message (no doubt useful advice on how to better photograph the skimmers). As well as the ever-present hunting malachite and hovering pied kingfishers (a cloud of more than 40 of them flew over our heads the evening we saw the three leopards) we also had a couple of excellent sightings of giant kingfisher; one with his takeaway fish supper.

Photography on the river doesn’t stop until the sun’s slipped behind the horizon – then it’s cocktail hour

Even before our leopard trio highlight we’d fared well on the mammal front too, bumping into a pack of rare wild dogs at one point. They pitched up totally out of the blue, on the main road, as wandering wild dogs are wont to do, when we were on our way back after our morning photo session in the park to the funky new Pangolin Chobe hotel (our base for half the trip before moving to the houseboat; the two bases allowing us to work different sections of the river, and the Chobe National Park, during our trip).

On one of our game drives (not all our time was spent on the water, just most of it) we spent time with a powerfully-built lioness resting at the edge of dappled shade on the riverbank, eyeing us with disdain, while her beau, a young male, waited respectfully just a few bushes away.

A great black and white picture opportunity in the park was also to be had from the ‘beach road’ when two beautifully silhouetted sparring young kudu bulls locked horns. Framed contre jour against the pale background of the river it worked particularly well and the silhouetted grasses at their feet added to the overall graphic effect.

An impala herd leaping all around us in the Chobe National Park one morning tested our reflexes once again

Among the many other encounters and photo opps along the way a prolonged session with a huge impala herd that walked sedately in single file straight towards us, as if in a procession, stands out. On an inaudible cue they all began running, jumping, kicking and pronking one after the other and we were suddenly treated to another sustained bout of frantic action photography.

Teenage tantrums in ‘the powder room’ – a dusting young elephant entertains us in the late afternoon

And then there were the elephants. It’s always a joy to photograph their antics on the Chobe and capture the drinking herds with wide angle lenses; drifting by their dipped trunks almost close enough to touch them. On one memorable afternoon it seemed elephants were coming out of the bush from all directions directly towards us on the river. It was breath-taking, and a privilege, to see them keep coming like that.

An elephant breeding herd coming out of the bush one afternoon gets a classic monotone treatment

On another we watched spellbound while two elephant mothers tried to coax their tiny babies back up a very steep chalky slope after their afternoon session by the water. We could sense their panic and really felt for them when it seemed the first little one wasn’t going to make it. The rest of the breeding herd milled about nervously watching and trumpeting concern loudly from the top of the high bank. His tiny bottom wiggling with all the effort effort he made it at last. One up, one to go. The second little elephant wasn’t as plucky and not at all happy about attempting the difficult climb. After several failed attempts, and much worried circling about and cajoling, the mother did the sensible thing and marched her offspring round the long way to a spot where the incline was less. Success. It was all we could do not to applaud.

Baboons with a tiny baby look on as a kudu bull makes a grand entrance on the riverbank at dusk

But we do applaud the Pangolin team once again for their help, including our guides on the river Killer and Laskey. Thanks also to Janine battling through a bug to help, to Sabine for shining like a true star on our night photography session, to Dan for the inspired bacon butties before our Zimbabwe day-trip, to the welcoming and helpful staff at the new hotel, (thanks too for wood-fired pizzas on safari – who knew that was a thing?), to Phenyo who will one day have his own TV show, to Martin and Fabian and the excellent houseboat staff, to Sabrina for going the extra mile from pancakes to pain au raisin to make us gain weight on the Pangolin Voyager, and finally to Guts for coming up with the craziest lodge design on the planet.

Getting snappy. Nile crocodiles with gleaming teeth lie in wait, part hidden by the grasses, along the edge of the river

And finally charged wine glasses raised to our wonderful guests. A photo safari can’t be truly successful without your input, help, humour (and patience). So thanks guys for being a stand-out crew. We hope KS won’t mind that we couldn’t quite match his polar bear count with leopards, but that we did try hard to. We hope RM will have taken MM for some new boots (we are still finding bits of disintegrating rubber in our bags two weeks later). Thanks again to the ‘snood-dude’ for additions to our wardrobe and to eagle-eyed spotter EP for a smile that lights up our memories of all those amazing wildlife encounters. And finally we hope we convinced you, SW, that on a photo boat on the Chobe you can get close enough a lot of the time to swap the huge telephoto you refuse to be separated from for something considerably shorter!

We’re now looking ahead to more messing about in boats in 2019.