Africa Trip - September 2010

South Africa - Botswana - Zambia

Botswana - Maun   (9/4-6/11)

 

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We flew from Johannesburg, South Africa to Maun, Botswana on an Air Botswana commuter turboprop plane. The flight was about 2 hours and we flew over a portion of the Kalihari Desert in Botswana. Unfortunately, the air over southern Africa is pretty hazy during the dry season due to all the sand and dust in the atmosphere. The visibility is somewhat limited, even from high altitude. We landed at the Maun international airport around midday. After checking through customs we met up with our safari group in front of the airport. There were ten other photographers on our trip and we were picked up by our safari leader, Adam Hedges, in their 4 wheel drive safari vehicles. Adam's company, Capricorn Safaris, works with Wilderness to provide in country mobile safaris in Botswana. We drove through Maun and out into the surrounding countryside along the Thamalakane River to the Royal Tree Lodge south of town. The lodge is located on a private game reserve with an abundance of wildlife that makes it a great place to get oriented to the Botswana bush country. The accommodations are very nice tents cabins with all the amenities and secluded in the bush surrounding the main lodge buildings. We also met, Thom Hogan, our photographic guide for the safari. We spent the remainder of our first day meeting each other and getting orientation advice from Thom about shooting while on mobile safari.

The following day we explored the game reserve surrounding the lodge. The large reserve area is fenced and is home to Giraffe, Springbok, Oryx, Zebra and many different birds. The fences, however, keeps out the predators so it is possible to walk around the reserve without worrying about confronting a lion or leopard. We spent most of the day getting the hang of shooting animals in the bush to get ready for our mobile safari. We ended the day with a great dinner in the lodge's dining room and a good night's sleep in our very comfortable tent cabin.

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