Camping in Moremi Game Reserve

Four campsites, three companies, zero DWNP bookings

This is the fact that derails more Moremi plans than any other: the campsites inside the reserve belong to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, but they were leased out to private concessionaires years ago, and DWNP takes no campsite bookings at all. Each operator runs its own diary, its own rates and its own payment terms, so a two-site itinerary can mean two separate companies, two invoices and two confirmation emails. The mapping below is the current one, verified against the operators' own sites and booking channels in September 2026.

Rates are the operator's campsite charge only. The DWNP camping fee, park entry and the vehicle fee all come on top, paid at the gate. Kwalate publishes no rates online, so the $40 figure is an on-enquiry guide; Xomae's P561 comes from its published 2023/24 tariff and has probably risen since, so treat the reply to your booking email as the real number.

No booking, no entry

A confirmed campsite reservation is a condition of entering Moremi at all. Turn up at South Gate without one and the gate turns you around, whatever cash you are holding, and you cannot fix it on the spot because the gate staff work for DWNP and the campsites do not. The long-standing procedure is that your operator's booking invoice goes to DWNP (historically by email to dwnp@gov.bw) so a permit is allocated against it; that detail comes from a 2022 booking guide and the operators handle it as part of confirmation, so your job is simply to carry the confirmation, printed, because signal dies long before the gate.

The calendar is the other half of the problem. Availability opens about 12 months out, Xakanaxa and North Gate sell out 6 to 8 months ahead for the June to October flood season, and Third Bridge follows close behind when it is open. So the booking order for a Moremi self-drive is fixed: campsites first, directly with the operators, then flights, vehicle hire and everything else around the dates you actually secured. Do it the other way and you own plane tickets to a reserve you cannot enter.

What a night actually costs: the two-layer fee

Every camping night in Moremi is billed in two layers. Layer one is the operator's campsite rate, paid to the concessionaire when you book: P561 per person at Third Bridge on Xomae's 2023/24 card, around $40 at the Kwalate sites, $50 at North Gate on the SKL tariff. Layer two is the DWNP camping fee of P60 per person per night for non-residents (P45 SADC, P20 citizens), paid at the gate along with park entry at P270 per person per day and the vehicle fee, best current figure P75 per day for a foreign-registered 4x4.

Remember that entry and vehicle fees run on calendar days including your departure day, so three nights means four fee-days. For two non-residents doing three nights at Third Bridge that stacks up to roughly P7,650 including fuel from Maun, about $570 at 2026 rates; our costs page walks through the full arithmetic. Pay the gate layers in pula, in cash, or in advance by card at the DWNP office in Maun, which issues a voucher. Do not rely on cards at the gates.

How to book, step by step

There is no central calendar and no single checkout. It is three companies and some email patience, and it works fine once you know the steps.

• 1. Fix your route first: which nights at which of the four sites. Mixing operators is normal; just treat each as a separate booking.
• 2. Check the 2026 flood status before you commit to Third Bridge. The area stayed closed after the record 2026 floods and we found no confirmation of reopening (checked September 2026), so ask Xomae directly and have a Xakanaxa or South Gate fallback.
• 3. Contact each operator: email Xomae at bookings@xomaesites.com for Third Bridge, email Kwalate Safaris at kwalatesafari@gmail.com for Xakanaxa and South Gate (office in Maun, above FNB in the New Mall), and use the online booking portal at sklcamps.com for North Gate. Copy the template below for the emails.
• 4. Expect an invoice and full prepayment, usually by bank transfer or card link. Kwalate takes bookings up to 12 months ahead of your first night; the others run on a similar horizon.
• 5. Confirm that the operator lodges your booking with DWNP for the entry permit, and ask them to spell out exactly which fees you still owe at the gate.
• 6. Print every confirmation and carry pula cash for the gate layers: P60 per person per night camping, P270 per person per day entry, P75 per day for the vehicle as the working figure.
• 7. Reconfirm by email a week or two before you drive, especially in the early and late flood season, and ask about water levels on your planned tracks while you have their attention.

The email, ready to copy

This is everything a Moremi campsite operator needs in one message, which saves you a round-trip of questions:

“Hello, I would like to book camping at [Third Bridge / Xakanaxa / South Gate Maqwee]. Dates: [arrival] to [departure], [x] nights. Party: [x] adults, [x] children with ages. Vehicles: [x], [type, e.g. Hilux with rooftop tent]. Nationality/residency for the rate tier: [non-resident / SADC / Botswana]. Please confirm availability, the total campsite cost, your payment terms, and that the booking will be lodged with DWNP for our entry permit. Please also confirm which DWNP fees we still pay at the gate.”

Two useful additions if they apply: whether firewood or a boat trip can be arranged from the site, and your planned route in and out, so the operator can flag a crossing that is not passable for your dates.

Third Bridge: the storied one

Third Bridge is the most famous self-drive campsite in Botswana, ten pitches beside the third of the reserve's log bridges where the Mopane Tongue dissolves into lagoons, with the Mboma loop on the doorstep, a boat station for sunset cruises and a small shop that counts as the only supplies inside the reserve. It is also the deepest commitment: three to three and a half hours of sand from South Gate, and when the fragile bridge itself is out, the detour runs 5.5 to 6 hours. Xomae also runs a small tented camp here (P1,326 per person sharing on the same 2023/24 card) if someone in your party is done with canvas.

Two warnings, both honest. First, the area stayed closed after the record 2026 floods, and as of September 2026 we found no confirmation it has reopened, so ask Xomae before you build the loop around it. Second, the camp's night visitors are not folklore: Third Bridge's hyenas are documented by decades of visitor reports and the camp's own warnings, bold enough to test coolers and tent zips, and the resident baboons work the pitches by day. The discipline section below is written with this site in mind.

Xakanaxa: the best position

Xakanaxa campsite has the finest situation of the four, eight to ten pitches on the edge of the Xakanaxa lagoon system where the dry Mopane Tongue meets permanent water, with a hippo soundtrack at night and the Gcodikwe heronry a boat ride away from the station next door. Game drives out of camp are the best in the reserve for variety, water on one side and mopane on the other.

It books accordingly: this is one of the two sites that sell out first, 6 to 8 months ahead for June to October, and Kwalate confirms availability by email only, so start early. Solar heats the showers when the sun cooperates, there is no power, and elephants walk through camp often enough that citrus in your food boxes is a genuine mistake.

South Gate and North Gate: the two gate camps

South Gate (Maqwee) is the logistical campsite: ten pitches in mopane woodland right at the entrance gate, two hours from Maun, so you clear formalities in the afternoon and are on the tracks at 06:00. The setting is the plainest of the four, which is exactly why it is the easiest to book, and as a first night in the reserve or a buffer night before the drive out it is the sensible choice.

North Gate (Khwai) is the character piece: pitches under big trees beside the log bridge over the Khwai River, elephant traffic through camp, the Khwai floodplain drives on the doorstep, and the natural overnight stop on the classic Maun to Savuti to Chobe traverse. Book it through SKL's online portal, and book early, since it sells out with Xakanaxa. One planning note: just across the bridge, outside the reserve, the Khwai community runs its own campsites, Magotho among them, through the Khwai Development Trust. Staying a night there adds night drives and puts money directly into the village, and pairs naturally with a North Gate booking.

Unfenced camp discipline

Every campsite in Moremi is unfenced, and the animals treat the camps as part of their range. That is the point of camping here, and it is safe on a short list of non-negotiables.

• Zip the tent completely, every time, even for a five-minute absence. Hyenas at Third Bridge are documented and bold, and an open tent is an invitation.
• Nothing edible, scented or interesting stays outside or in the tent: food, toothpaste, rubbish and cooler boxes all lock in the vehicle overnight.
• Never leave a pitch unattended with food out; the baboons at Third Bridge and Xakanaxa work in daylight and they are faster than you.
• No citrus anywhere in your kit. Elephants will open a vehicle for oranges.
• No walking after dark beyond the firelight, and take a light and a companion for the ablution run.
• Children stay within arm's reach at dusk and dawn, and never between the tents and the water.
• Keep the fire modest, burn only bought firewood, and douse it fully before bed.
• Rubbish leaves the reserve with you. The bins that exist are raided nightly, so a sealed bin bag in the vehicle beats all of them.

Water and provisioning: Maun is the supermarket

Buy everything in Maun, because the only shop inside the reserve is the basic one at Third Bridge and there is no fuel past Maun until Kasane on the northern traverse. That means all food, all drinking water, firewood, and diesel including jerry cans; deep sand pushes a loaded 4x4 to around 17 litres per 100 km, so tanks alone rarely cover a full loop with detours. Campsite taps, where they run, deliver untreated borehole water for washing, so plan five litres of drinking water per person per day in the hot months plus a two-day reserve, and carry a filter or tablets as backup.

Maun handles all of it in one afternoon: proper supermarkets, butcheries, camping gas, pula from the ATMs for the gate fees, and the DWNP office if you want to prepay entry by card. Mind the veterinary fence rule on the way back: you can carry meat north from Maun into Moremi, but you cannot bring it back south through the Shorobe fence, so buy for the trip, not beyond it.

Which site suits you

First time in Moremi, or first time camping in big-game country: book South Gate for the first night and Xakanaxa for the heart of the trip. You get a soft landing two hours from Maun, then the best-positioned camp in the reserve with the boat station next door, and both sit on the most forgiving tracks. Add a night at North Gate on the way out if you are continuing to Khwai or Chobe, and let the community campsites across the bridge supply the night-drive itch the reserve cannot.

Fully equipped and experienced, with real recovery gear, a winch-fit second vehicle or a satellite communicator, and water for the whole trip plus reserve: Third Bridge and the Mboma loop are what you came for, the deepest camping in the reserve with the lagoons at the door, flood status permitting. Whatever your setup, the constraint is the diary, not the money: the operators' books open about 12 months out, and the difference between the site you wanted and the site you got is usually six months of lead time.

Sources

• Xomae Group: Third Bridge campsite and 2023/24 tariff (checked 13 Sep 2026)
• Kwalate Safaris: Xakanaxa and Maqwee (South Gate) campsites (checked 13 Sep 2026)
• SKL Camps: Khwai (North Gate) campsite and booking portal (checked 13 Sep 2026)
• Tracks4Africa: how to book campsites in Botswana national parks, April 2022 (checked 13 Sep 2026)
• Government of Botswana national parks tariff, Ministry of Finance Savingram, December 2025 (checked 26 Jul 2026)
• Khwai Development Trust: community campsites (checked 13 Sep 2026)