A massive yawn. Not normally what you’d expect from an African safari.

We finished high tea faster than usual after arriving on the houseboat; bolting home-made quiche and sponge-cake because our guide announced a group of elephants were about to cross the river up ahead. We could get to them in time if we jumped on the photo boat ‘now…now’.

That was around 45 minutes ago. And now it’s a massive yawn…

But we’re not at all bored. We’re staring down the throat of a huge male hippo who’s showing us some threatening tusks and the remains of his plant-based dinner. The yawn keeps on getting bigger and we can’t stop clicking until we’ve caught the full gape of this mud-slinging Chobe ‘Jaws’. With pictures of swimming elephants already in the bag, our first session on the river’s going rather swimmingly – if you’ll excuse the pun. Just a few hours in and we’re as immersed as our subjects in this wildlife-rich soup.

But that wasn’t the end of our photography that first session on the river. There was still the famous Chobe sunset to contend with. As the light faded our search for some backlit subjects with great potential got underway. We love backlighting safari icons striding across the Chobe floodplain against a flame orange sunset sky; it’s often the last hurrah of the photographic day before heading home for drinks and dinner. Today was no exception.

We’d noted some giraffes heading for a salt-lick by the bank earlier in the afternoon and had been keeping a watchful eye on them. Although they moved off before we got the full effect of the afterglow it was not before we’d secured striking shots of them striding towards the national park, beautifully silhouetted in a line. It was a chance to have a go warming up our white balance in camera to help saturate the background colour.

When the giraffes disappeared from view and we turned our little boat homeward we couldn’t resist a final flourish of photography when an elephant cow and her tiny calf on the edge of bank finally plucked up courage to cross. Just time to squeeze the very last drop from our first afternoon with them both; even trying some high-key once the light had gone.

‘Li-ons…li-ons…li-ons…’ It’s the middle of the day. We’re all resting up on the houseboat. Some of us are having a little siesta, others are editing their mornings’ pictures, others are up on the sun-deck enjoying the slow cruise along the river to our next mooring. Soaking up the sun and the passing wildlife.

 ‘Li-ons…li-ons…li-ons…’ A sing-song call is gently attempting to get the attention of those of our group down in their cabins. It’s a quiet call, but the barely muted excitement it contains acts as a summons. Moments later we’re all assembled on the top deck, the boat’s come to a halt, and guests, crew, the kitchen staff are all keenly watching a large pride of lions making short work of a kudu bull they’ve just brought down on the edge of the national park.

This is how our sunny days pass. Happily drifting from one photographic opportunity to the next while training our lenses on most of the passing waterbirds that grab our attention in between times.

Photogenic birds are reliable stars of every Chobe trip and we had great variety once again including jacanas, skimmers, saddle-billed storks and black herons. Headliners are always the fish eagles of course, but our guests also loved seeing some pelicans down at the rapids where the yellow-billed storks always hang out. They were a surprise first for us in that part of the river for this year.

We also had good fortune on game drives with leopard sightings on two of the three game drives we did in the national park. We even managed to bump into the same lion pride that had killed the kudu earlier. They were resting on the shoreline late one afternoon and rewarded our patience with great intimate interaction between family members illustrating just how wonderfully social these apex predators can be.

We had many chances too for some dramatic elephant, African skimmer and buffalo silhouettes, with vivid orange skies as a backdrop, and another memorable session with two elephant bulls playfighting on the banks above us.

And then all too quickly it had to end. But we went out on a high. Our final two sessions on the river were spent photographing the story of another kill. A large lion pride had earlier brought down not one, but two buffalos (an adult and a calf) right on the shoreline. The lions moved between their two kills all afternoon which is fine until you factor in that lions don’t relish getting their feet wet. To get to one carcass they had to cross a stretch of water; providing us with the opportunity for some fantastic action shots as they did so. We stayed with them until the light was gone. The next day we returned to photograph the next chapter of the story and trained our cameras on the vultures, marabou storks and jackals fighting over the remains.

Sadly this was our last visit to the Chobe for 2023, but we’re already looking forward to returning there for more great photography next year. Three cheers again to Laskey and Shuur for excellent guiding on the photo-boats – our shots are all thanks to your knowledge of the river’s wildlife and skill navigating its waters. We hope to see you on the river next year.

Thanks also, of course, to all the Pangolinistas who looked after us so well throughout our stay on the Pangolin Voyager houseboat and at the Pangolin Hotel in Kasane.

And finally a huge shout out to our lovely photographer gang. Thanks to JL for the ‘bubbly’ boundless enthusiasm and help, to SL for literally throwing yourself at every photo opportunity (you may well still be bruised but you always nailed your ‘decisive moment’), to CS for rocking all those flight shots (we’ll always have the ‘drongo drive’), to PS for putting up with all the backlighting we did (we’ll get you on the dark side yet!), to chief skimmer photographer of the trip RP and finally to croc-doc ML for reliably providing just the right dry one-liner where required. Thanks to all for your contribution and for the wonderful ride.