POTN Safari around South/West Africa - we are baaack :-)

Hey, When do you folks go - cant wait to see the pictures.

I saw a familiar name in the Landscape selections for the POTN book. Congratulations, Beth! That's a killer shot!

http://potn.smugmug.co​m …3993/2/13808158​2/Original

eenorton wrote in post #3002149


Okay Ms Modesty: http://potn.smugmug.co​m …613993/2/138080​752/Medium

Yours is better!

I wouldn't say that! But thanks!

And you got another one!
http://potn.smugmug.co​m …3548/2/12478278​6/Original

That's great, Beth! And it doesn't look oversaturated to me... looks great!

Yesterday I saw the program "Return of the Cheetah" from Namibia on Animal Planet.

I hope we will see cheetahs in the wild otherwise it could be an idea to visit The Cheetah Conservation Fund

http://www.cheetah.org​/

It is located 3,5 hour drive north of Windhoek.

Sounds awesome - I think you will be hitting the tail end of winter, in Sub-Saharan Africa, but at least there won’t be much rain (we get most of our rain in summer)

tommykjensen wrote in post #3010258
Yesterday I saw the program "Return of the Cheetah" from Namibia on Animal Planet.

I hope we will see cheetahs in the wild otherwise it could be an idea to visit The Cheetah Conservation Fund

http://www.cheetah.org​/

It is located 3,5 hour drive north of Windhoek.

That sounds great, Tommy! And it might be a nice rest stop on the way to Etosha (if we have time).

I'm going from memory here as I don't have my guide book to hand, but I do know we won't have time on the way there as all planned/booked already but we may be able to do it on the way back if we re-route and lose a couple of days in Okavango/Chobe or miss Tsolido Hills.

I checked it out when I first started planning, as I wanted to go there first time I went to Namibia, but it is just too off the main route and time is tight for the Namibia side in the first week. Waterberg Plateau is quite close and would be a great overnight on the way back, but it is all about compromises and what people want to do.

So, I would suggest leaving any decisions on this until we are there. It might be possible to lose a day in Etosha (but we have already paid!) and go, but even then it is a backwards detour and so a long drive to our next overnight and stock up point.

Thanks, Beth! I was pretty surprised that one snuck through!

Well done on your shooting successes y'all. Good to see the Africa posse well represented. I didn't enter anything. I only really know the urban stuff and was very surprised not to see some shots that I would have expected, but then again if people don't enter then they ain't gonna be there. It's been a great project well led.

Ok y'all ... seems I was wrong about Chobe and Okavango and there being lots of accommodation options. There are options but many are very expensive indeed and many others are just plain expensive. So, the reasonably priced stuff is more limited AND you need a booking or you can't enter the parks. I am going to investigate options further this weekend. It relates to Chobe and Moremi in particular. We may need to book some camping sites in those parks if we are to be guarenteed entry.

Good news is my 5D should arrive Saturday or Monday along with a SH 100-400mm IS L I picked up at a nice price. Still not sure on the latter based on my last one, push-pull, etc but it appeared before a well priced 50-500mm so fate took a hand! That and my 24-105mm IS L should be a great 2 lens solution, tho' may get a 50mm 1.4 too.

BeccaNH wrote in post #3036463
I checked

What did you check?

condyk wrote in post #3036487
What did you check?

You're too quick for me! I didn't even realize that I had hit submit reply!

I was checking my most recent Botswana book and there aren't many camps available, but there was one that looked decent.

Audi camp is the only one that looks even resonably priced and it is near Maun. I don't know how close that is to anything.

Most of the ones that I found were well over $400 per person per night. A little out of our price range, I think! I wouldn't mind camping for a couple of nights if that's what it takes.

I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything reasonable.

Thanks for all your work on this!

Outside the parks we should be fine and also all along the panhandle (NW) of Okavango. We have Savuti in Chobe which is a government parks camp so cheaper and there are similar in Moremi. Anyway, post what you find ...

condyk wrote in post #3036679
Outside the parks we should be fine and also all along the panhandle (NW) of Okavango. We have Savuti in Chobe which is a government parks camp so cheaper and there are similar in Moremi. Anyway, post what you find ...

Oh, so it's only within the park that we may have a problem. I'll keep looking to see what I can find.