I found myself somewhere the other day that I hadn’t been planning: Botswana. I guess I never realized the ease of crossing borders in this part of Africa. Before, borders meant three days waiting in a capital. This border was crossed on a whim. My destination in Boswana was Chobe National Park.were I hitched on with Kalahari Tours for a 2 day safari. It was essentially a wildlife photographer’s dream location. When we first entered Chobe National Park, I asked our guide to stop for an elephant I spotted while up on the hill. He responded with “sure, but we’ll see lots more.” Still, I didn’t want to risk it and took about 10 snaps of the elephant about a kilometer away. Over the next two days in Chobe National Park, I would estimate I saw some 500 elephants. Moreover, we saw dozens of giraffe, loads of hippos, a couple lions, and a wild variety other animals. What I’m showing you here is a mere collection of photos I took while on safari in Chobe National Park. One could easily spend months shooting the park and not take a single bad image. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos half as much as I enjoyed taking them.

How close do you get to elephants in Chobe National Park? I shot this image with an 18mm wide angle lens. I could have reached out and touched it.

There is so much wildlife in Chobe National Park that after a while you aren’t satisfied with photos of just one animal. These are a couple impala hanging out with an elephant

If you’ve been following my on twitter @brendanvanson, you’ll know how I feel about hippos: #WarOnHippos

Oh you fancy, huh? Hippos kill more people than any other any animal in Africa… and for what? They are vegetarians! #WarOnHippos