BOTSWANA TRAVEL DOCUMENTARY - 4x4 Self Drive Safari - amazing rainy season adventures in Africa
Join us on a self-drive safari in Botswana, where we were charged by hippo & elephant, found an adult male lion with a fresh kill, sat with lion cubs and filmed everything from termites to giraffe.
Our route took us through Chobe, Savuti, Moremi, Khwai, Xanakaxa, Mababe and Victoria Falls.
We find plenty of lions, hippo, elephant, wild dog and got some great footage on our night cameras of hyena & honey badger. One amazing Botswana safari with the impressive Toyota Land Cruisers from 'Travel Adventures Botswana', itinerary & planning by Tawana Self Drive.
Full kit list below.
#botswanasafari #safarifilm #safariphotographer #selfdrivesafari #savuti #chobe #moremi #safariphotography #africatourism #safarifilmmaker #botswana #tawanaselfdrive #lioncubs
Kit list of equipment used in the making of this video and for the trip -
Cameras
Main stills & video camera: Panasonic Lumix S1H
Back up camera: Panasonic Lumix GH5 - amzn.to/2SIZMPH
Timelapse & gimbal shots: DJI Osmo Pocket - amzn.to/34Jxl9E
Action cameras: GoPro Hero 8 Black - amzn.to/2SDkAbn
Cam Park camera trap for day & night - amzn.to/2SKnhHS
Lenses
Panasonic Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f2.8 - amzn.to/30Pd01w
Canon 100-400mm zoom - amzn.to/3nBNre8
Canon 1.4x MK3 converter - amzn.to/36OlREH
Lumix G 100-300mm - amzn.to/33KWtO5
Other really useful stuff
Manfrotto travel tripod - amzn.to/3nyhTGb
Window bean bag for lens stability (filled with dried rice purchased once in Africa) - amzn.to/3iIXWcc
Led Lenser headtorch - amzn.to/36Q0ymk
Led Lenser P7 torch - amzn.to/2GLvbhD
Manfrotto Camera backpack - amzn.to/2SDm31n
G Drive 4TB external hard drive - amzn.to/3jYPmrj
Leatherman Sidekick - invaluable multi-tool - amzn.to/3ddkmB6
Great reading
Don't run whatever you do: Adventures of a safari guide by Peter Allison - amzn.to/3jK3ft2
Don't look behind you: True tales of a safari guide by Peter Allison - amzn.to/3lvQ53g
East African Wildlife: a folding pocket guide - amzn.to/34Fj9i5
Thank you all so much for your lovely feedback. So great to see how many people are enjoying my short documentary. I'd love to be able to produce more in the following years so please Subscribe to my channel (I need to hit 1000 subscribers for KZhead to allow me to monetize my content which would put me closer to being able to head back to Botswana & Kenya (and hopefully other amazing countries) to make more travel films). Thank you so much for your support. Chris.
stubones Thank you for your feedback, I’ve had a few comments about the music and will definitely look to wind it back in future videos (and try to capture/use more ambient, natural sounds).
@@christaylorphoto Glad to hear it. This is an amazing trip and the video made me really wish I was there with you. Thanks for uploading the video.
@@stubones Thank you
Love this video
Wow. Great trip. Great video footage.
thanks for the awesome filming
Sach A NICE DUCUMENTRY
Amazing! Great shooting and editing, beautiful movie!
Impressive. Thanks
This is my 10th time watching this video
Fantastic! Thank you so much Reagile!
Great video. Thank you.
Wao nice
Excellent
Great video . Greetings from 🇬🇧 London.
Nice 👍
hebat mr. keliling afrika
Bonjour! Tres beau documentaire ! La luminosité est parfaite. Il fait parti des plus beaux documentaires 😢! On a envie de partir pour retrouver ces sensations. La nostalgie nous submerge ❤. Merci beaucoup pour ces moments de rêves .
Merci beaucoup!
My beloved Botswana🇧🇼❤️
Botswana is paradise on earth.
You havnt been to ngorongoro / serengeti
Beautiful country , from namibia.
I live in Botswana 🇧🇼
Absolutely great, loved your video
Thank you, seems so long ago now, would love to head back and make another film some day.
Awesome video! Really enjoyed this
Thank you James, that means a lot.
Excellent pics. Wish I had had a better video when I visited Kenya in the 1980s.
Mark Andy Steve. Best of the best documentaries ever. Perfect executed.
Thanks, you left me out!
Beautifully made. A real pleasure to watch and makes you want to go on a trip instantly!
Cool video. I don't know if have the sack to do an African Safari without a local guide. You guys were awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Excellent video it brought back lots of memories for me, so thanks for that.
awesome video...beautiful country. Afrika!!
Wonderful film with awesome camera work. Thank you!
Beautifully filmed and edited! I live and work in Kasane, Botswana and I loved watching this movie. Probably one of the best safari road trip videos out there, great job!
Ah, thank you so much, that means a lot. Can’t wait to get back out there again one day when the world has calmed down a bit.
Chris Taylor If you do, come and visit us at Pangolin Photo Safaris. I am sure it’ll be right up your alley 😀
100% I would love to!
Surely il pasby
I'm taking a few friends up in December and this video captured everything I wanted to explain to them...well shot.. well edited and narrated... WELL DONE!!
Thank you. Botswna is next on our bucket list of African country to visit.
Great video. One of the best documentaries on Africa. Thanks for sharing the "MAGIC".
Incredible! Love the high quality animals vids 💯
Amazing video
Wonderful video and a great combination of wildlife from the small to the big. Enjoyed the combination of the driving and campsites mixed in with the wildlife. Five star video, thanks Jerry
Thank you Jerry, really appreciate that!
Traveling to Botswana? Watch this video to discover Botswana's highlights! kzhead.info/sun/e5qJmKqArnOumYk/bejne.html
Wow the filming and the storytelling are top notch.
Excellent. Sure it must have been a wonderful experience
Welcome to Kenya,there's many great things to share out,National parks,cultures and making nature documentaries Kenya leads in Africa.
Breath taking experiences and scenery. . Good off-road driving skills. .impressive in every sense
Woow Chris this is magnificent
Thank you so much!
Fantastic film, thanks for sharing!
This is maybe the best movie of Botswana I've ever seen. Thanks for this unbelievable and breathtaking wildlive (except the last 2 scenes ;-) )
Ha, thank you very much. Yes, the last two scenes are pretty horrible eh?!
This is amazing Chris. Missing Africa and watching your documentary has enable d me to enjoy this great continent. Thank you.
Excellent Botswana Documentary. Amazing Wild Life Photography. Great Graphics. Brilliant and Articulate Narrative. Awesome Video. Brilliant ! Good Audio. Excellent Editing Skills ! Great job 👏 .
Ah, thank you so much.
Very enjoyable and excellent photography . Thank you.
Only in Africa, next level scenery!! Thank you 👌
Thanks for the video, my country my heart ❤️ 🇧🇼
Oh so many places still to visit!!! Beautiful Bots!
Congrats Boys! One of the very best travel docus on Africa ever seen, outstanding!!!
Wow, thank you so much!
Enjoyed it really great photography!
Thank,s Chris. Outstanding quality video!
Maravilloso
It's good to see that January is still an amazing time to visit Botswana. I'm going to travel around Namibia in January 2021. Thank you Chris.
Hope u have fun man!
Won of the best short doco's I have seen. Awesome footage - with great appreciation of nature. Was fantastic to revisit those places with you. Hope to do another trip soon - once Covid's over. A great add for Africa and how people should enjoy and behave when in the bush. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome from 🇧🇼 with love 💕
Thank you, Chis for such a great video of Botswana wildlife - amazing!!!
Thanks for sharing I love the footage.
Great shots!
Awesome mate! That is an excellent quality product! Really nicely done!
Simply stunning documentary, the commentary is excellent. Well done 👌
My beautiful country 🥰
Beautiful
Now this is much better :) More views and deservedly so. Super nice flow watching this video, nice scenes and very informative.
Chris the video was excellent, really liked it. Your editing also fantastic and I did like the music but a bit over-powerful, mix it a bit with natural sound will make it so much better. I personally don't like the fast motion videos! Thank goodness there were no long and boring scenes of constant driving and driving! The green season has its moments like all seasons. Thank you again!
Thank you Stephan, appreciate the feedback, totally agree about the music & lack of ambient sounds. It's tricky when you are sat in a vehicle with all the creaks every time someone moves but I am trying to get more ambient sound in my films these days & when I next manage to get out there to film the wildlife I will definitely pay it more attention. All the best, Chris.
I love it, thanks ♥️
Great wildlife video, thumbs up! Thank for sharing
GoTrails can u sub to us or a shout-out
This was amazing,captions are incredible,and the channel itself is pure joy to watch,
Thank you so much Elijah!
Welcome to Kenya,it's the ultimate country in Africa to make nature,wild,birds and roads documentaries!!
You're welcome sir,your channel gives more comforts,good job.
This is probably my favorite Overlanding video on youtube... we are doing a similar trip next week... driving up to Kasane and then from Kasane to Khwai and then on to Maun... I'm so EXCITED!!
Ah thank you, that's lovely of you to sayso. I am very envious of your trip, can't wait to go again but I feel it may be a while with the state of the world at the moment.
Awesome.
Yes, it is me, the Land Rover guy, trust you guys are well, had a look at your boat, would not mind a go on it. Regards
Vic Ball Fantastic! Incredible how social media makes an already small world even smaller! Maybe you could drop me an email to info@christaylorphoto.co.uk so I could answer your previous comment?
Great video, really well done! Beautiful place and so many animals!
Excellent work, Chris! So many beautiful and crisp shots, and such a variety of wildlife spotted, simply amazing. I am especially astonished by how green the landscape was during your trip, whereas when we visited, everything was dry. Definitely calls for a return during the rainy season. Those wet 4x4 trails looked like a lot of fun indeed! The night cameras are a great idea, definitely need to get me one of those!
Lucas T. Jahn Thank you Lucas, really appreciate your kind words. It was indeed an amazing time to visit and yes I totally recommend getting a trail camera or two. So exciting each morning seeing what they have captured!
Amazing story. Thanks for sharing it. Wonderful shots, good perspective, attention to detail and an excellent cut. Well done. Hope this was a once in a lifetime experience for all of you. Greetings from Düsseldorf, Germany.
Thank you, much appreciated. Yes it was an amazing trip, hopefully not once in a lifetime though as I know we'd all love to go back one day!
Amazing! I am doing the same route Kasane-->Chobe-->Linyanti-->Savuti-->Khwai-->Maun this Sep/Oct. This video will help me a lot with my planning. Thanks for all the great tips
Wow, great movie! We have visited most of these places in the dry season, but the wet season looks really spectacular. Thanks for sharing!
০হ
wow, what fantastic photography. You have to have a certain eye to create stunning shots. You guys have that "eye". Cannot wait to visit Botswana after Covid.
Very good video!!! We were also on this tour at the same time last year. Awezome Experience...
Awesome video and fantastic video work! (You must have very large lenses :)
Thank you for sharing this inspiring video! Really beautifully shot and well put together, good commentary also! Interesting itinerary, and good advice! Well done!
Many thanks Christiaan, seems like a lifetime ago now!
Wow, amazing, take me along on your next trip lol
The country looks even more magnificent from your photography skills. I love every moments, such a great effort and narrative. Please keep it up.
Yes.
Outstanding video Chris - Richard Jarrel here, yank and former Sheringham resident with many mutual friends. The clarity of detail and the range in size of animals from ants to elephants is amazing...as are the vivid colors. You should be getting thousands of views - wonderful work.
Thank you Richard, much appreciated. I just can’t seem to crack KZhead, rarely manage to get more than 100 views no matter what I post! Thank you for noticing the detail, I hadn’t really considered that I’d covered elephants right down to termites - opposite ends of the size spectrum but having equal importance and effect on the ecosystem. I should have mentioned it in the voiceover!
@@christaylorphoto I forgot to mention it was great to get the RNLI flag in there too. Hope you can crack the KZhead algorithm and get the viewership your work deserves.
Good video...but just a point of correction, the rivers don't drain FROM the Delta but rather TO it.
Ah, wow, I had no idea, thank you for the info.
Fantastic video, I enjoyed every bit of it. Wish I could also travel to Africa sometime
Great job on this, Chris. I've been watching Africa vlogs for a couple years now and I don't think I've seen one that is better shot, edited, and presented than yours. I was disappointed to discover that you don't live in ZA. I was hoping you had a back catalog of similar videos from other countries in Southern Africa! As an aside, it would have been interesting to see your itinerary and places you stayed included in the video description.
Fact I like this trip when I get chance to drive this car I will so happy
I think I am experiencing some serious lens envy! ;-) Stunning footage and great filmmaking. The wildlife footage was absolutely amazing. Personally, I would have like a lot more diegetic sound and less sound track. I especially loved the mud splash on the windscreen/fade to black in the opening scene. Well done!!
Thank you much appreciated. I would have preferred to go with more ambient sound but being in a 4x4 with another person generally means lots of shutter clicks and talking so I had to use the music to hide it.
Fantastic footage well done 😊💯👏👍You have impressed my girlfriend from Botswana 😁😁
Good job - both video and Trip. Congrats. We are in Planning Mode for an epic overland from Nairobi to CPT using a Land Cruiser with Tent on Roof, so love to hear which Campsites you used (List is ample, but perhaps omit those that you would not commend). Thnx.
Brilliant videography, I'll sub.
Top notch video, the picture quality and sound tracks is just amazing!! Hope you get a chance to tour Uganda too!!
Botswana is looking so so beautiful right now except the elephants dying in massive numbers and sadly tourists also cant come here, safaris are closed and our economy is sinking😭😭😒😒😒
;(
thats how nature replenishes itself. too many elephants is bad for the ecosystem.
@@tutotutot5193 it's not nature if it's humans doing the killing..
Beautiful filming I don't think I've ever come across the area shown this way. Have added this trip style to my bucket list.. Did you feel safe while on the reserve later in the day into night time?
Fantastic job👏👏! Can I tag along next time haha.
Great video. Sorry you didnt find us in Chobe. Next time!
An absolutely beautiful video Chris, I went to Kruger in 2018 and was heading back this September, unfortunately, that is not going to be the case now.
Thank you Thomas, sorry you aren't able to get back this year. We also had to cancel a return trip to Kenya for June. Fingers crossed for 2021! All the best.
Hi guys, good job. Video quality is great. Man Africa is beautiful. Next time consider doing one documentary in Kenya. Watching from Nairobi Kenya, once again I say good job 👍
Thank you Ronald, we LOVE kenya! We have been to Enonkishu Conservancy out there twice in the last couple of years and will definitely be back when we can. You can see the Kenya films on my channel - ‘Last Line of Defence’. Thanks again, Chris.
What an amazing trip! My husband and I are going to Botswana in May. We are very interested in the campsites you've visited. Can you give us some tips?
Happy to offer tips, anything specific you'd like to know?
@@christaylorphoto What were for you the best campsites in Savuti and Kwai area?
@@maggiecharestpoulin2290 We loved Xakanaxa campsite and Mbudi in Khwai, plus Ihaha at Chobe - I've done a write up of our trip on my blog here if you are interested, some more detail in there: www.christaylorphoto.co.uk/botswana-self-drive-safari-a-wild-adventure/
Loved it!!! You guys had experience of a lifetime. Can you share approx expense for the trip?
From memory I think it cost us each around £3000 all in with flights, truck hire, fees, etc.
Chris Taylor Thank you very much. This indicates your meticulous planning. I was expecting a higher number. Thanks again.
excelent video, personally I'd tune down the music a bit since its a bit loud wrt to the narrative, but besides that this is some very good content!
next time take the ladies with you, great video nonetheless