Chobe and Okavango Delta Photo Safari

The Pangolin Chobe Hotel is a five-minute drive from Kasane Airport, where a member of the Pangolin Photo Safaris team will meet you. If you had chosen to visit Victoria Falls before, however, your transfer will bring you across the border and right to our door.

The award-winning Pangolin Chobe Hotel is situated on a plateau overlooking the Caprivi floodplains and the Chobe River below and has 14 rooms in total spread over two floors. The hotel was designed by Pangolin co-founder Gerhard ‘Guts’ Swanepoel and is a tribute to the art of wildlife photography.

You arrive straight into a double-height wildlife photography gallery from which the rooms lead. At the end of the gallery, you will find the editing room as well as the entrance to the underground hide. Along with the waterhole, the front of the hotel features a large deck with incredible views as well as an eco-pool for cooling off in the midday sun.

All food and drink are included at the Pangolin Chobe Hotel, and the Pangolin Bar on the first floor is open all day for tea, coffee and refreshing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. In between the morning and afternoon photo safari activities in the Chobe National Park, the kitchen will provide you with plenty of freshly prepared meals – you will not go hungry!

After you have settled into your room, it will be time to meet your fellow photographers with whom you will be on this photo safari, as well as your Pangolin Photo Host. We limit the number of participants on this safari to a maximum of eight, which is the same number of chairs on our photo boats and then two game viewers (four on each) when you are in the Okavango Delta. This is also the perfect number for the Pangolin Photo Host to be able to spend optimal time with each guest during and in between the game activities.

Please note that this Photo Safari package includes the use of a Canon mirrorless camera and telephoto lens. So, should you require a second body or perhaps you are travelling with somebody who doesn’t have a camera, this is included in the package price, along with a few memory cards for you to fill. We often have non-photographer travelling companions joining these safaris, and they thoroughly enjoy having access to cameras of this calibre. In no time at all, they will be taking photos like a pro!

While in the Chobe, we will focus mainly on the Chobe River with one or two game drives in the Chobe National Park. There will be only game drives in The Okavango, so we rather focus on water-based photo opportunities in The Chobe. Here is where you will see plenty of elephants, buffalo, crocodiles, water birds, fish eagles, plenty of plains game and on occasion a big cat sneaking down to the river to slake its thirst! Big cats are more regularly seen in the Delta – our next destination – but we have had some incredible sightings of lions and leopards from the photo boats too, which is very special.

In the Chobe, we will do one morning and one afternoon activity with a group image review session in between. For these, it’s advised to bring your laptop (as well as the editing software of your choice pre-loaded). If you have yet to develop your post-production skills, then we invite you to do Janine’s Free Adobe Lightroom Course for beginners before you travel, as this will give you an excellent foundation to make the most of these sessions.

We are often asked whether a non-photographer spouse or travelling companion would enjoy these safaris, and the simple answer is yes. It is first and foremost a wildlife experience and if they want to try wildlife photography, we will be happy to lend them a camera for the duration of the safari – and show them how to use it, of course!