A safari… on a boat?
If you saw my post on our trip to the Okavango Delta, you’ll know that in early 2022, Ben’s parents took the whole family to Botswana for a safari. Ben’s dad did all the planning for this trip, and the whole reason he chose Botswana was for this experience with Pangolin Safaris.
I hadn’t heard of Pangolin Safaris before this trip, but now I know that this company very specifically specializes in photography safaris. (I think they have a YouTube channel.) This means that a safari with Pangolin includes everything a pro photographer might want. Their safari boats are equipped with very fancy gimbals, and the company has all kinds of cameras, lenses, and other gear that you can rent. We brought all our own equipment, so I can’t speak to what this rental process is like, but I think it’s a really cool idea for people who want to take amazing pictures, but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on lenses you might not use in any other setting.
We spent three nights on board the Pangolin Voyager, Pangolin’s houseboat on the Chobe River, on the border of Botswana and Namibia. This safari experience was truly unlike anything I have ever done before, and while we definitely experienced both highs and lows while onboard, I think this is a great option for anyone looking for a safari experience that is out of the ordinary.
Getting to the Chobe
After three days in a safari lodge in the Okavango Delta, we hopped onto a bush plane to take us from the game reserve to Kasane airport, near the corner where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe touch. The Chobe River is actually the border between Botswana and Namibia on its northern edge. (I always thought of Namibia as west of Botswana, not north, but there’s a little chunk of Namibia that extends out over the top of Botswana right along this river.)
A driver from Pangolin Safaris met us at the airport and took us to the river where the boat was waiting for us. The Pangolin Voyager operates safaris on the river, mostly viewing the Botswana side of the river. The Botswana side is all national park land, while the Namibia side is mostly farmland. However, the houseboat was docked on the Namibia side. This meant we had to stamp out of Botswana, take a tiny motorboat across the river, and stamp into Namibia. This is undoubtedly the smallest border control I have ever seen, with just one tiny room and one tiny window to stamp us into a new country.
Side note: Although I now have a Namibia stamp in my passport, I am still tagging this part of the trip as “Botswana travel.” This is because we really didn’t do any game viewing in Namibia, and I only put my feet on land for a few minutes to get my passport stamped. Someday, hopefully, I’ll get to see more of Namibia, but our trip on the Pangolin Voyager still felt like part of out “Botswana safari” to me.
Anyhow….
The Pangolin Voyager
The Pangolin Voyager is a houseboat owned and operated by Pangolin Photo Safaris. It has five cabins, and is able to accommodate ten guests at any given time, though they recommend groups of eight, since that’s how many can fit on the photo boat you use for the game drives. Game boats? Game floats? Whatever.
My first impression of the boat was “Wow!” It felt so luxurious to have the entire houseboat for just our family. There are three levels on the houseboat: a roof deck, where there are lounge-chairs for sunbathing, a common area where we could hang out between game drives and where we ate our meals, and a lower deck where all the cabins were located.
My favorite area of the boat was the roof deck, and I definitely got a sunburn because I just couldn’t bear to pull myself away from the gorgeous sunshine. We even spotted elephants from right there on the deck on a couple different occasions! The stargazing was also phenomenal!
The common area was also very nice, with huge windows all around the room, offering great views of the river. There is a self-serve bar, and Pangolin is happy to stock up on any of your preferred drinks. We ate our meals in this common area, which were all included in the package, along with drinks including alcohol. The food on the boat was absolutely exceptional from top to bottom. We did have one rather trying dining experience on board, when one night, a literal swarm of little bugs came into the houseboat and wouldn’t leave us alone all through dinner. It literally looked like a cloud there were so many of them, and I’m sure at least one got into my food, although I don’t really want to think about that. The crew kept saying, “This never happens,” and apologized over and over. It was not great in the moment, but we can all laugh about it now.
Finally, the cabins. The cabins were quite spacious and mostly comfortable, but if I’m being honest, there were a few things that I think could stand to be improved, especially if Pangolin is trying to brand itself as a luxury safari option. First: air-conditioning. There is technically air-conditioning onboard, but it is turned off during the middle of the night to conserve power. I totally understand that this is necessary given the limited power supply, but I’m not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty toasty overnight, and woke up a couple of times drenched in sweat in the hot, humid climate. Second: the showers. The water in the shower literally comes from the murky brown river. I’m not sure if/how they filter the water before it comes out of the shower head, but I only took one shower the first night on board, and I felt more dirty after my shower than before. My hair just felt grimy after rinsing in that water, and I opted not to shower again after that. Neither of these issues were that big a deal, and they certainly didn’t ruin my overall experience with Pangolin, but just something to consider.
The Boat Drives
The thing that made this safari experience extra special is that instead of doing your game drives in a car, you do them on a boat!
Just like on a normal safari, we did one game drive (or should I say boat drive?) in the morning, and one in the afternoon. As the sun rose, our guide, Laskey, got us all settled into the small “photo boat” we used for game viewing. This boat allowed us to get up close and personal with all the animals that came to hang out by the river.
One downside to the boat safari as opposed to a jeep safari is that you cannot follow the animals, and what you see is entirely dependent on which animals come to the water. So you really need to get lucky. We saw lots of elephants, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, and gazelles, plus a few giraffes and even a couple of lions, although they were quite far in the distance, and we could really only see them with binoculars.
After a morning on the water, we would come back to the houseboat for a lovely brunch, then spend the middle of the day moving to our next mooring spot. During those hours, I mostly relaxed on the top deck and read. Then, in the evening, we would head back out for another boat drive.
Pretty Sure I’m a Birder Now
I’ve always loved birds, and I like to joke that I’m just one pair of binoculars away from becoming a birder, and I really had a chance to indulge that interest while on the Chobe River. Both the diversity and the sheer number of birds we saw was incredible, from tiny kingfishers to huge eagles.
I think that many people, when they come on safari, have very specific animals they want to look for, namely lions. Or other big cats. Not many people take the time to appreciate some of the smaller animals, like the birds. But to me, birds are equally beautiful and exciting, and I loved that our guide was able to tell us about all the different species we spotted.
Almost Getting Eaten by a Hippo
The most exciting adventure of our trip on the Pangolin Voyager happened on the second morning of our trip. We took the photo boat out to a wide, shallow area of the river, where the hippos liked to congregate. There must have been hundreds of them. My mother-in-law’s favorite animals are hippos, so she was thrilled, and the rest of us almost as excited watching them bob up and down in the water.
Suddenly, we heard splashing, and turned to see a huge hippo charging towards the boat. She had rage in her eyes, and I swear her gaze locked with mine as she ran/jumped through the water in our direction. She threw herself at the boat with her jaws open, actually getting her head over the side before crashing back into the water. I can remember staring at her and realizing there was nowhere for me to go to get away. We were surrounded on all sides by hippo-infested waters, and if she wanted to eat me, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
Yes, I know that hippos don’t eat people, but those kinds of logical thoughts mean nothing when a 3,000 pound enraged animal is coming at you with all it’s got.
After the initial shock wore off, we all had a pretty good laugh about the whole thing, when all of a sudden, there she was again! Charging for a second time. Clearly, it was time to go, but the shallow water meant we couldn’t get turned around very quickly, and the boat moved much more slowly than the hippo. My mother-in-law was shrieking “Go, Laskey, go!” as the hippo got closer and closer. She jumped at us again, snapping her powerful jaws at us. Luckily, Ben was ready for her this time, and got the whole thing on video. It was one of the more terrifying moments of my life, but no one got hurt, and we left the hippos in peace. Now it’s one of our favorite stories to tell from the trip!
Overall Impressions
My overall impression is that the Pangolin houseboat is the perfect option for someone who has already been on safari before and wants a different and unique experience. We did not see quite as many animals as we did on the land portion of our safari trip, and it was a more adventurous, less luxurious travel style. However, I love being on the water, and I was thrilled to see African animals in an entirely new way.
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