Exploring Khwai part one April 2024

e [Music] welcome back to another video yes this time we're heading to Quai one of our favorite places to go as I'm sure you know by now um we were a little bit more loaded than usual uh we had three friends with us and of course that means extra tents extra food um but even though we were loaded the old nen Safari seemed to be doing okay and I'll give you a little bit of a spoiler it did do okay but here we are just approaching and going through the village of shobi I love this little village um so spectacular with all these palm trees so super super cool uh I love driving through here at Sunrise but before we go any further stop the video I want to say and give a big shout out to Jim green uh this is not a sponsored video but they booted us out yes they provided me with a lovely pair of African Ranger Barefoot boots I love them and you're going to see a lot more of those boots in our videos they're so comfortable really amazing and they kitted my wife out with these lovely Ashley ladies suede vellies um fies phies I can't really say it proberly but it's a lovely brand we really appreciate them uh supporting such a small Channel like ours and we want to give them a shout out so you'll find a link to the website below and thank you so much Jim green oh look at those nice boots but yeah needed to tighten up these uh Wheels because I had taken my vehicle to have the wheels balanced and they didn't really tighten the bolts when they put it back together again so tightened things up and continued on our corrugated road to qu and here was our first sighting a lovely heard of elephants crossing the road but yes this uh first 20 km up to the veterinary gate is always horrible uh um but at least you can always tell yourself that this is the worst section it doesn't get worse than that first section um in my opinion anyway the road gets better and the the section from aabi to Qui is a bit also bumpy um but at least there's lots to see in that area so it's super cool a little stop to make sure nothing at falling off the roof and we're on our way again and it wasn't much longer then we came up to the Village of sanuo now sanuo is probably the last Village that you're going to find any kind of domestic animals in the village your next Village is myi the most you're going to see there's domestic dog um but there won't be any more you know goats or chickens and that section from senyu to mumi is full of wildlife so if you're driving this route keep your eyes peeled because it is very likely you can spot something pretty cool here we are once again checking out to make sure nothing falling off your roof um you'll be surprised at the amount of things that fall off uh vehicles on this road uh often on Facebook you'll find people who have discovered tires tents mattresses that fall off so make sure things are tie down well uh and look out maybe you'll find something lying on the road this is the little detour aab babby as I think I've said before in videos you don't have to take the detour if the river is low uh you can actually skirt around the edge but we used the detour as an opportunity to stop by the hippo pool uh and make ourselves a cup of coffee I think this was about 9:00 so a perfect time for morning coffee and it was nice having the hippos there to watch perfect not quite coffee with the Lions but you know some compromise must be made uh when he traveling can't be Lions everywhere it was quite surprising to see how low the water was at maab um in fact this whole trip we noticed how low the rivers were even in Quai U but it was also surprising to see when crossing the mbabi bridge here that the water was still flowing um it looked so dry but it was nice to see that there was still a little bit of flow in the rivers and so here we were heading to quiet but this is the notice that has been put up on the SAR campsite if you want to read that you can pause it but before we uh go on we stop by the maab hyena Den um this is just off the main road the maab hyena Den there was nothing going on there um they probably were using it but there were no hyenas when we stopped by they were probably sleeping either in their Burrows or a little bit away from the den um but we headed on and it wasn't long before we arrived at the community concession of Quai and so as as our habit we drop down to the mlo area and this is the dead tree area that you would initially drop down to passing this really beautiful big tree but as you drop down you'll notice all the dead trees um and we always drop down here because some years ago we dropped down and we found a leopard walking around at 11:00 in the morning which is really late for a leopard to be walking around so it just shows you never know what you're going to find uh in the morning but it was really nice uh to drop down and just see so much game moving around even though it was really really dry uh there was plenty of game moving about but I always think when you drop down to moto and and drive that section it gives you a sense of just how busy Moto area is and I think you'll always find that Moto is quite a busy area but here we are crossing the moodi river the majority of the crossings I think actually all all the crossings are actually on the maudi river not on the Quai River the maudi joins the Quai River and actually this Crossing is right by the junction of the Quai and maudi River so if you want to find it if you want to use a Crossing this is the crossing we used and it was very hard and in fact throughout this trip we crossed that Crossing numerous times as you'll see in the videos by the way I don't know if I mentioned this is just part one uh of this quiet trip we made it into two parts uh because there was lots of activity and I don't know let me know what you think about the length of videos and by the way this is uh Lion tracks and we found these Lion tracks uh very soon after crossing the river and the area they call it barbar Pan um but it's so nice to see lion tracks around you just know the lions are around and all you need to do is find them so it was it was super to see those lines around while the line tracks but yes as I was saying um let me know what you think about the length of videos uh personally I love watching really long format videos and I know there's many out there who prefer shorter format um so let me know what do you think is the perfect length of a video um this video as you can see is like 38 minutes um and it's in two parts it would have been over an hour long if I'd made it into one part so normally I make long format content but this time we made two shorter formats this was just at the hyena Den um and this is interesting because there were no hyenas to be seen um but as you'll see later on in the video we do come back here and the hyenas are all out there Den so just because you pass by the hyena den and there's no hyenas there doesn't mean the hyenas aren't there in fact when we were there at the hyena Den I looked around the entrances and I could see tiny little baby hyena Footprints so I knew they were there um and so that's why we went back and sure enough when we went back later on the baby hyenas were there but more of that later here we are arriving at our F favorite campsite qu Baka campsite and as usual um I will leave all the links to that campsite below honestly this is my favorite campsite um it's so quiet so private and there's always things happening around it I mean this trip where had hyenas running past uh and a huge pack of them um of course we had the elephants through the camp and you'll see later on we even had a lion walk really close by the campsite uh through the night so lots of game moves past this little campsite um but at the same time it's super quiet super private um and I think that's a that's is a huge Plus for for any campsite but on arriving first things first get unpacked get Cam set up uh there was a little bit of a race going on with our guests to see who could put their tent up the fastest um of course we we won because we should win by this time we put this tent up enough um I don't know why we thought we were so competitive considering that our guest had probably never put up a tent in their life um I think one of them had put up a tent before but there we go um but 10 up we got everything sorted uh get Camp sorted and then took a little walk down to the bathrooms uh to have a shower get refreshed and get ready for the afternoon game Drive lemons I like your with Refreshments sorted we head out on our first afternoon game Drive uh crossing the maab river and not the maab river the maudi river uh we head towards Quai and then take basically our first turn uh to the left and then that kind of leads through to the hyena Den um so if you know a little bit about that area you'll know where we were but yep we came to the hyena Den they still hadn't woken up yet so we head out on our drive I wanted to head back towards where we had seen those Lion tracks because I thought we could Snoop around that area and see if maybe we could find them uh one thing with uh your first game drive or maybe your first two game drives is you have no idea of what's been happening in the area so you don't know where you know the lines are maybe they made a kill somewhere um but yeah lots of cheeky elephants as you can see uh there were so many elephants it was very hard to drive around qu uh and basically sneak past them because they were everywhere they were uh basically around every corner and but they were very calm very chill um all they would do if when you drove past is kind of like flap the ears and let you know that they were there also lots of water bug um I'm not going to lie I did get a little bit tired of stopping for water Buck uh for some reason my guests and our friends are really had a thing for waterb so we did a lot of stopping for waterb um they are very cute the babies are very very cute they're so fluffy um but yeah a beautiful afternoon game Drive uh um but yeah it's always good these first game drives really checking out the tracks uh trying to get a sense of what's happening in the area um I always think the first game drives and then the first night depending on what you hear uh should give you a good indication of what's happening but yeah we made it back to the hyena den and it was really good to see the little babies they were so cute they were basically a few different sizes there was one that was like probably you know 40 cm high and then these two tiny little ones are so cute on the way home in the fading light I thought I saw some interesting tracks on the road but it's always hard to see those tracks when it's a bit dark so I just had to get out and check another very useful thing is to always carry your Spotlight with you in your car even if you're doing a a day daytime drive maybe a morning drive you don't know if you will ever get stranded somewhere and have to spend the night somewhere so carrying a good torch in your vehicle with you uh is a very good thing to do I stopped on the bridge just have a look in the dark so peaceful for [Music] next morning s is up early at around 5:30 uh always get that coffee made we always use the instant little pouched coffee for our first coffee of the morning having the hot water boiled the night before means we can just wake up pour the hot water have that coffee or just something hot to help wake you up uh as you leave camp at around 5:30 in the morning uh a little bit more complicated because of course we had our visitors with us not saying that they were a pain just saying that it was a little bit more work um but no it was lovely having them along um it's actually quite nice having others come with you on Safari uh you get to see the bush through their eyes um sometimes we get so used to um the animals around us and that it doesn't have that same impact on us but then when you take others with you uh and you see how excited they get to to see a water Buck to uh see things uh it's really cool here I am on the bridge with my torch uh that was because right past Camp coming down our Camp Road was these really fresh Lion tracks and it was just one set walking down the road and it looked like he came down by the side of the bridge um so we spent quite a bit of time this morning um driving up and down trying to find more of his tracks because he kept going off the road um so that's a lot of our morning was spent driving around following these tracks um but didn't see any sign of him uh it's really difficult also on the main road because some of the vehicles head out very early in the morning and they cover over the track so you it's sometimes really difficult to track an animal uh even if the tracks are quite fresh um because there's a lot of traffic on that main Qui Road well driving an old car like ours means you stop often just have a look make sure nothing's falling off um make sure the exhaust isn't falling off the engine isn't falling out oil isn't leaking but everything was fine and so we continued our uh morning game Drive what a beautiful morning it was sun rising uh absolutely beautiful the one thing about an early morning drive and something that we really love is the fact that the animals are so full of energy and this her of Impala we're just bouncing literally bouncing back and forth and we spent uh a considerable time there just watching ing those little um Impala bouncing around really really cute and sometimes it is just the small animals that uh really um entertain us uh so yeah that was super cool so This Is Us Now Crossing again the same Crossing that we crossed coming in and that is the maudi river and we're crossing now towards the motler side and basically now we're looking for a little place to stop and have our morning coffee This Is Us just arriving at Matari matsi materi Pan um is what everybody calls it but I call it um Austin's hippo pool after our good friend Austin who I mean he's still around but he loved this area um I feel like every time he came to Quai we would spend our time sing around this Pan and the river Crossings some very cool Birds let me know if you know the name in the comments below um and I'll let you know if you're right or wrong or maybe you will let me know if I'm right or wrong but yeah leave a comment about the birds um but yeah this is our stop for our coffee we stopped by the pan it's a lovely little spot uh We've stopped here before I think in one of our previous videos this is where we stopped and there was that really large herd of buffalo just at Sunrise I got some really beautiful photos um from that early morning but after coffee was had or rather not completely finished because we take it with us we set off to continue our drive and yeah the little n and Safari doing quite well feel kind of bad for our guests um our friends in the back they were a little bit squashed but that's the price of coming on Safari with us uh we we squeeze you in wherever we can fit you and we squeezed them all into the back seat but I think they were okay um I hope they were okay but yeah lots of elephants as I've mentioned before which is really cool for well with breakfast time quickly approaching we turned ourselves around and started heading back to camp but there's so much to see that you even though you're taking it slow heading back to Camp you end up taking even more time because you have to stop look at the giraffes look at the other little animals um which is how it should be um a lot of people rush around um on game drives and really it's not about rushing around you really need just need to stop and take a look at the smaller things like this tor us um sometimes we can fall into this trap of trying to find find the leopard find the uh and then you drive past so much amazing animals and amazing scenery in in the search of the lion in The Search of the leopard um The Lion and the leopard while they are super cool to find and um let's not make any bones about it it's one of the things we're always looking for um it's not the only thing to be seen and even um the plants and the shrubs and the footprints they all add to the experience and I think it's important uh to slow down and take the time to to look at the footprints to look at the different plants um and you find that you really enjoy your drive even more than than usual uh if you do that back at Camp it's time to get breakfast cooking first things first get that fire going and one thing I do like about this little campsite here at quaka is that they always provide you with firewood and I think that's really nice um you know I never worry about taking firewood to quiet because I know uh that the the lovely team here at quaka campsite will have you covered they come daily they clean away the ashes and they make sure you have firewood and so I think that is know a super good thing and five stars for them um but yeah little change in breakfast normally it's bacon and eggs I had these cheese grillers um that I decided to give a try um I don't know how I feel about them let me know if you've ever made scrambled egg with cheese grillers um but as you can see we got our baked beans um yep thanks for all your comments on the last video your feelings about baked beans um they still going strong in our campsite um but yeah breakfast is a very important meal of the day uh especially after a long morning drive breakfast was interrupted by this old bull elephant who kind of wanted to walk into our campsite um so I just had to shoot him away and he actually just walked around the edge of the camp and started drinking water in the river in front of us uh so it was fine um but yeah sometimes it's okay to have your elephants come to the camp but you can always just shoe them off if they get too close it's rather good to be safe than sorry just had nice shower and going to walk back to Camp got some friendly elephant so all good let go the elephant nearly got us almost got us every Got Away there's more as you can see lots of elephants around camp and as just a good reminder always be uh observed and be careful and respect these animals they are wild animals um and they will come very close to your camp and they don't mean any harm they're actually really gentle animals um but yeah just just give them some space and and you will be okay um they didn't give us any problems at all and it was nice having them around the campsite well this afternoon's game Drive probably was one of our best game drives we've ever had um it turned out to be a super cool drive but it started very mundanely with us going to the Village of Quai because one of our friends wanted to see what the village of qu looked like and so we did a little drive through the village we drove up to the Mori gate um here you cross um North Bridge um a little bit of water flowing under there so that's nice to see but as mentioned earlier this was the lowest we've ever seen the water um here at qu so hopefully the water comes and uh we've had not very good rains this year so hoping uh that these Rivers will get a bit of water later on in the year Well if you've been to Qui before you'll probably recognize this bridge it's a bit of a landmark I've actually only once uh seen water under it it's mainly dry but it's a useful Landmark uh to know uh when giving directions or receiving directions in Qui so be between the Quai River Camp which is a balmont camp and the machaba lodge is this large open flood plane um and you can see us driving through it here many of the guides they refer to this plane as dollar dollar Pan um so this is dollar but we found this beautiful elephant bull and he had some magnificent tusks um it's not a common sight to see an elephant with tusks this size uh so it was really special and he was super chill we just followed him for a little while and soon we head into this little forest and we saw one machaba vehicle parked there uh on the road that we were driving on and they lying in the grass was this absolutely beautiful leopard and this was such a stunning sighting and was really really special for we were so focused on the leopard that we didn't even notice that he had a Impala that he had killed up in the tree and this was uh beautiful sighting I mean you can see him there munching on his Impala and as a result of his kill there he stayed around here for the next part of our our trip and so we were able to visit him uh on a few occasions but after a while more and more vehicles started arriving so we left to celebrate with some jonic what did we just say we just saw a leopard as you saw and how do you feel very good we celebrating having snacks and jonic yay yeah the r sun R well after Sundowners with the sun sinking we decided to head out and see if we could go and spend some time with the hyenas I think we all really love hyenas um both me and my wife um hyenas are very special to us some people really don't like them um so yeah let me know again in the comments um your thoughts on hyenas um but I I think there's something really special about going to a den and watching The Young Ones play uh seeing the adults come in you see so many interactions and anytime you can spend time um watching animals interact with one another is super super uh beautiful it's a it's a beautiful experience because most of the time when we see animals in the wild they often just you know eating or sleeping and so visiting them at like is beautiful because you you see this like family interactions you see the babies playing with the parents um so yeah super cool for he for [Music] while after spending considerable time with the hyenas watching them playing and frolicking around their den it was time for us to head back to camp and get some dinner going for well after a lovely dinner of steak and garlic bread we set off to set up our trail camera now you'll remember from the naan video we didn't didn't have much success with our trail camera so I was really hoping that this time we could at least get something uh on our camera during the night and happily we did see something even if it only was an elephant it was still super cool to see on the trail camera he just hanged around a bit it's interesting how they can sense that the F camera is there well this is where we're going to end part one of our choir video thank you so much for watching and if you've got this far as is our custom now please leave a comment let us know and I just want to say thank you so much for all your support all your likes all your comments thank you so much we appreciate bye

Channel: Exploring Botswana

Views: 6,250

Keywords: Khwai Botswana, Overlanding africa, Safari African, Okavango Delta

Id: bvuACGYnx3c

Length: 38min 33sec (2313 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024