Photo safari

[Russ16]

Not sure if this is the right forum so please move if appropriate.

My fiancé wants to do a photo safari. Despite my best efforts she has no interest in joining me on a hunting safari. I’ve tried but it is a no-go so please don’t start by suggesting that.

This will need to be a separate trip.

I’d still like to keep it as a bit of real Africa not some of the really luxury lodges that I’ve seen where game comes up to your window or eats out of your hand.

My two initial thoughts at to either go to Tanzania and see Ngorongoro which I think would be cool since I’m not likely to afford a Tanzania hunt. Or to start in Victoria Falls and either go to Hwange which is close by or skip to the other side of the country and see Ghonerezou.

For those of you who have done a photo only safari please share your experience with locations as well as places to stay and guides. I’m also interested in the time of year but probably want to avoid peak migration type experiences. The photos and videos of vehicles lined up bumper to bumper don’t appeal to me. I’d like a quieter experience.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of hitting the beaches in Mozambique or Tanzania fo a few days at the end as they look amazing. So thoughts about that welcome as well.

Any and all information appreciated. It’s been made pretty clear there is no shooting allowed on this one so please no suggestions on combo trips. I do hope that if she falls in love with it she’ll be willing to accompany me on a hunt in the future.

Well both be in Nashville for SCI so let me know if there are any outfitters that also do photo tha I should be talking to.

Thanks to all.

 

[wesheltonj]

They are all going to be bumper to bumper when Cats are spotted. The tented lodges at the rim of the crater are kind of ruff. If you can get a room at the lodge that’s the way to go. You also have the Serengeti, the tented camps and lodges there are first class. You will fly into JRO. I would not recommend Dar to Arusha, as the Arusha airport sucks. And you will be stuck with Precision Air which sucks even worse.

With Victoria Falls, you can head to Chobe. They offer game drives and boat trips to see the elephants cross the river nightly.

The amount of game seen in the Serengeti cannot be matched anywhere else in numbers.

Kruger is very large. There are lodges and camps inside the park. And hotels outside the park.

If you want elephants then Amboseli is where you want to go. But the drive is intense on the Mombasa highway.

I would not hit the beaches in Mozambique. Zanzibar would be better.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I saw this kind of crap and refused to go anywhere near it.

 

[slam8031]

I am going to travel to South Africa this summer with my outfitter friends at Warthog Safaris. We will head into the Limpopo and stay at their primary area (my youngest daughter is hunting for her graduation gift). Then we are driving into Chobe and then onto Victoria falls and then walk into Zambia and back to the Limpopo. We may add on going to Cape Town. We will get to see a little bit of a lot of different places!!
For what it’s worth our first safari converted my wife into a hunter and our fourth safari converted my three daughters and son and now late mother into true conservationists once we took game meat from our hunting and fed a school and village. There is still hope.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

My wife is a non-hunter but loves doing photo safaris. We did Vic Falls / Chobe combo and it was fabulous. We also did the Maasai Mara in Kenya and it was spectacular. We did that trip about a month ahead of the great migration, so the crowds and price was lower. We still saw a lot of animals including all of the Big 5. I have reports for both trips posted.

 

[matt vejar]

I’ve been fishing at this place twice in Botswana and hunting with brother twice 2003 and 4. Ruan and Donell will host you to the photo safari you only can dream about. The cost is very reasonable. Was $700 a day per person. That’s cheap once you check it out!! Okavango Delta and Bwabwata National park in Namibia. There home and chalets are on the border - Shakawe,Botswana. PM me once you’ve done your homework!

 

[Tex .416]

I’ll vouch for Kathy Adams Clark’s photo tour in Tanzania. She is a professional photographer and passionate about the outdoors. She runs her trip through Strabo Photo Tours. She runs a two week tour, which mostly stays in nice tented camps, which mostly are in hunting concessions plus a few national parks. There may be traffic in Ngorogoro Crater around the rhinos, but the rest of the areas we were on our own. It also is a good way to see some famous hunting areas like Selous.

For non-hard core photographers, she will provide some instruction as part of the package. We were not photographers, but I was/am friends with her husband through my bird conservation work. So like you, I wanted to go to Africa, but my wife did not want to go hunting. Turns out to have been a fantastic trip and we saw more areas and animals and birds than we would have on a hunting only trip.

We added some days on the front and back end to visit some other spots not on the itinerary. Absolutely fantastic trip that well exceeded our already high expectations. My wife was comfortable and absolutely loved every minute of it except for one area with tsetse flies. Those little varmints made me wish I had a flame thrower.

 

[Russ16]

I’ve been fishing at this place twice in Botswana and hunting with brother twice 2003 and 4. Ruan and Donell will host you to the photo safari you only can dream about. The cost is very reasonable. Was $700 a day per person. That’s cheap once you check it out!! Okavango Delta and Bwabwata National park in Namibia. There home and chalets are on the border - Shakawe,Botswana. PM me once you’ve done your homework!

I’ll be reaching out for the contact info.

 

[Russ16]

Thanks all for the replies. Keep them coming lots to consider.

Two weeks of probably more than we are looking for. More like a week to 10 days of viewing.

 

[Russ16]

They are all going to be bumper to bumper when Cats are spotted. The tented lodges at the rim of the crater are kind of ruff. If you can get a room at the lodge that’s the way to go. You also have the Serengeti, the tented camps and lodges there are first class. You will fly into JRO. I would not recommend Dar to Arusha, as the Arusha airport sucks. And you will be stuck with Precision Air which sucks even worse.

With Victoria Falls, you can head to Chobe. They offer game drives and boat trips to see the elephants cross the river nightly.

The amount of game seen in the Serengeti cannot be matched anywhere else in numbers.

Kruger is very large. There are lodges and camps inside the park. And hotels outside the park.

If you want elephants then Amboseli is where you want to go. But the drive is intense on the Mombasa highway.

I would not hit the beaches in Mozambique. Zanzibar would be better.

Is there a reason you lean away from Mozambique? The two people I know who have done it had great things to say.

 

[baxterb]

I went to Kenya on the early shoulder season during the rains. We stayed largely north and saw very, very few people. Had the whole of Meru NP to ourselves. Shaba had folks but nothing bad and easy to get away from them in the bush. Ol Pejeta was great and again only had a few people.

I wanted a much more “down to earth” trip and not glamour upon glamour. Real Africa to me is rugged beauty. We put almost 2k on the Land Cruiser. A good trip. I booked with Ker and Downey. The guide I went with has sadly passed away but they are tops in Kenya.

 

[wesheltonj]

Is there a reason you lean away from Mozambique? The two people I know who have done it had great things to say.

Direct flights into Zanzibar.

 

[Grz63]

For Namibia, I suggest you to ask Anton by Estreuxsafaris.com. He can build your on tour.

 

[RLD]

Not sure if this is the right forum so please move if appropriate.

My fiancé wants to do a photo safari. Despite my best efforts she has no interest in joining me on a hunting safari. I’ve tried but it is a no-go so please don’t start by suggesting that.

This will need to be a separate trip.

I’d still like to keep it as a bit of real Africa not some of the really luxury lodges that I’ve seen where game comes up to your window or eats out of your hand.

My two initial thoughts at to either go to Tanzania and see Ngorongoro which I think would be cool since I’m not likely to afford a Tanzania hunt. Or to start in Victoria Falls and either go to Hwange which is close by or skip to the other side of the country and see Ghonerezou.

For those of you who have done a photo only safari please share your experience with locations as well as places to stay and guides. I’m also interested in the time of year but probably want to avoid peak migration type experiences. The photos and videos of vehicles lined up bumper to bumper don’t appeal to me. I’d like a quieter experience.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of hitting the beaches in Mozambique or Tanzania fo a few days at the end as they look amazing. So thoughts about that welcome as well.

Any and all information appreciated. It’s been made pretty clear there is no shooting allowed on this one so please no suggestions on combo trips. I do hope that if she falls in love with it she’ll be willing to accompany me on a hunt in the future.

Well both be in Nashville for SCI so let me know if there are any outfitters that also do photo tha I should be talking to.

Thanks to all.

I have done photo safaris in both East Africa (including Kenya and Tanzania) and Southern Africa (South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe - primarily Vic Falls). Had a great time in both areas.

Both trips we did with Abercrombie and Kent. Everything was top notch, and we didn't see any other groups while out on safari and the guides were local and fantastic, as were the foods and the accomodations.

If you like beaches etc I would also recommend Mombasa, Kenya which has nice hotels and beaches, and for us great sentimental value as that is where my wife learned to swim as a young girl living in East Africa.

If you are interested in specific locations, let me know and I can pull our itinerary books for both trips and get you the names of specific camps etc.

Last I checked travel agent Elison Poe, at Poe Travel, had a good relationship with A&K and can get you a good price on their trips. I have done several trips with Poe Travel around the world, including Africa, Central Europe and the Middle East and they have all been excellent and gone off like clockwork.