2018-05 Botswana / Zimbabwe

2018-05 Botswana / Zimbabwe

2018-05 Botswana / Zimbabwe

Beginning of May 2018 we went on Photo Safari in Botswana and Zimbabwe. We stayed at 5 different camps in Botswana and one lodge in Zimbabwe.

In Botswana we stayed at

  • Kalahari Plains
  • Kwando Little Kwara
  • Sanctuary Stanlay
  • Belmond Khwai River Lodge
  • Kings Pool

In Zimbabwe we stayed at

  • andBeyond Matetsi Victoria Falls

While staying at the Matetsi River Lodge we visited the magnificent Victoria Falls. I created the special spark site dedicated to this visit, as it is very different from all other Safari drives we’ve done during this trip.

We flew from Johannesburg (South Africa) to Maun in Botswana (red flashes).
From there we continued our trip by small air crafts (yellow flashes).
1 : Maun to Kalahari Plains, about 45 minutes flight time
2: Kalahari Plains to Little Kwara Camp with a stop over in Maun, where we changed aircraft
3. Little Kwara to Stanleys Sanctuary
4. Stanleys Sanctuary to Khwai River
5. Khwai River to Kings Pool
6. Kings Pool to Kasane
7. Kasane in Botswana by car (blue line), crossing the border to Zimbabwe, to Matetsi River Lodge

From the other locations, each one is different, each place has its unique beauty and offers spectacular sightings during game drives. As I took a lot of images it will probably take some time until I can show images from each location.

During this trip I used the following equipment :

  • Nikon D500 with a 200 – 500 mm f/5.6 lens as my main camera, with 3 batteries and 7 XQD cards.
  • Sony A7R3 with a 24 – 240 mm lens as my second camera for images when we’re closer to the animals and for landscape photos. I used the additional 16 – 35 mm lens for some night photography, but only very few times. I carried 4 batteries and many SD cards for this camera.
  • Sony RX1R with its 35 mm f/2.0 fixed lens as my quick accessible “point and shoot” camera, used mainly for images taken out of the moving vehicle and sometimes in low light conditions. I had one spare battery for this camera.
  • Sony RX0 for some video shooting, one spare battery. Camera was mounted on a gimbal head FeiYu Tech G5. I never took any videos before, so its my first experience in this field. The camera has an action cam like wide angle lens, not as wide as a GoPro, but close up videos with this camera where not possible. But it adds some content to the story telling.
  • Gitzo GT0545T tripod with a Gitzo GH1382TQD ball head
  • Lens and sensor cleaning equipment. Most important was the blower, with which we could remove almost all dust from lenses and cameras. The blower was by far the most used cleaning tool.

All the photo equipment and carry on luggage was supposed to not exceed 20 kg, which we managed. My goal choosing the equipment was to limit lens change during game drive to a strikt minimum. In fact I never changed the lens during the day, only some times in the evening at the camp to prepare for some night shoots. Therefore I never had any problems with sensor dust. Of course we had to clean the lenses after each game drive, as driving in an open vehicle is dusty.

2018-05-11 Khwai River day 2

2018-05-11 Khwai River day 2

A beautiful morning (Sony RX1R, 35mm, ISO 100, f/8.0, 1/200) Right at the exit from the camp we saw some beautiful and impressive birds Saddle-billed stork (Nikon D500, 200-500mm at 500mm, ISO 2000, f/5.6, 1/1000) African Sacred Ibis (Nikon D500, 200-500mm at 500mm, ISO 280, f/5.6, 1/1000) Hamerkop (Nikon D500, 200-500mm at 400mm, ISO 220, […]