Part 1
It was with great excitement Catherine and I started our first adventure to the African Continent. This is going to be a Photographers/wildlife adventure with all the safari’s that are planned. A trip like this has been on the bucket list for the both of us for some time, so we were glad to be finally going.
The holiday plans had a last minute alteration due to visa problems, so the itinerary turned out like this –
7 days at Cresta Mowana Safari Resort, Kasane, Botswana
4 days each at A’Zambezi River Lodge and The Kingdom Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
5 days Perth, Australia
From Brisbane to Perth, then Johannesburg, then on to Kasane, Botswana. About 17 hours in flight time plus waiting time at the various airports, total journey time about 26 hours.
Above is a picture of our carry-on bags. 2 complete camera sets. The 2 big lenses we took are the Sigma 150-600 Contemporary, and the Canon 70-200 F2.8 coupled with a 2x teleconverter. These 2 lenses weigh over 4 kg by themselves. The cameras are Canon 6D and 70D. Also had the full range of lenses from 11mm to 300mm, ND filter kits, remote shutter release and also 1 flash.
Also taken with us was the Canon G7x. We thought this would be a handy little point and shoot for those situations where the animals got too close and we don’t have the time to change lenses. Also handy for when we did not want to carry around the big cameras.
A lot of camera gear and with the weight restrictions of carry-on bags we weren’t too sure how we would get along, in the end, everything was ok with no airlines challenging us.
As soon as we arrived at the Kasane airport we knew the adventure would be starting, as the airport is one of the smallest we had been to, the terminal, if you could call it that was just a shed, the immigration form to be filled out had writing on it so small we had to ask the custom man to read some parts of it for us, and yes we did have our reading glasses on.
The Cresta Mowana Safari Resort is very close to the Chobe National park entrance, about 15 minutes drive. From the resort, you can do 2 three-hour game drives (safari) per day, 1 in the morning and the second in the afternoon. The facilities at the resort were excellent, everything was clean and tidy, the food was good with plenty of variety to satisfy anyone.
The main attractions at the resort are the safaris and the river cruise (afternoons only), which is like a safari but in a boat. You go up the Chobe River into Chobe National Park and look at the wildlife. It’s a bit more relaxing on the boat as you can move about, they also provide refreshments like snacks and beer.
In the next part I will go into more detail about the safari’s, and of course, post more pictures.