Activities and rules
Things to do in Moremi Game Reserve
Self-drive game drives are the heart of Moremi, boats add a dimension no landlocked park can match, and the rules are stricter than the surrounding concessions. Knowing what is allowed where is the single most useful piece of Moremi planning.
The rule that shapes everything: reserve versus concessions
Inside Moremi you may game drive (guided or self-drive), take motorboat and mokoro trips, fish with a permit and bird to your heart's content. You may not drive at night, walk, or leave the tracks. In the private and community concessions surrounding the reserve (Khwai and its neighbours), all three are allowed.
This asymmetry explains more about the area than any brochure. Khwai's outsized reputation for leopard and wild dog is substantially a function of legal night access rather than higher animal density. It also produces the oddest fact in Botswana safari: guests at Mombo and Chief's Camp on Chief's Island pay some of the highest rates on the continent and still get no night drives and no off-roading, because Chief's Island is inside the reserve. If those freedoms matter to you, book the concessions; if pristine, protected core country matters more, book Moremi. The strongest itineraries combine both.
Game drives, mostly your own
Self-driving is the main activity inside the reserve: sand tracks along the Khwai, the lagoon circuits at Xakanaxa, the Mboma loop's lechwe floodplains, all at your own pace with your own dawn starts. Stay on established tracks, keep to the 40 km/h limit, and plan every day backwards from the gate hours, because you must be in your campsite outside them.
Guided drives are available through the lodges, and for most international visitors a guided mobile safari (a private guide moving camp with you through the public campsites) is the format that makes Moremi work without a rental 4x4.
On the water: motorboats and the heronry
Boats are what make Moremi more than a game-drive park. Xakanaxa Boat Station, beside the campsite, runs motorboat cruises through the lagoon system; book at least two hours, because the deep Delta proper is some distance out. The prize is the Gcodikwe heronry, a wading-bird breeding colony at its spectacular best at peak flood. Third Bridge Boat Station runs sunset cruises when the area is open.
Two practical notes: sharing a boat with other campers materially cuts the cost, so ask around at camp; and boats run year-round on the permanent lagoons but are at their best May to September on the flood.
Mokoro from Mboma, with honest expectations
The public mokoro option inside the reserve is Mboma Boat Station, north-west of Third Bridge (+267 73 727 929), offering morning, afternoon and full-day trips when water levels allow. A mokoro is the Delta's signature experience: silent, low, pushed along by a poler through the reeds.
Set expectations honestly: you see fewer animals from a mokoro, not more. The vantage is low and the pace slow; motorboats deliver more game, the mokoro delivers the atmosphere. Do both if you can. And in hippo country, your poler's channel choice is a safety decision: defer to it entirely, and keep hands and feet out of the water.
Fishing and birding
Fishing is permitted with a DWNP permit (arranged via DWNP or your lodge) except during the national closed season in January and February. Birding is world class year-round, with over 400 species recorded for the reserve; the heronries, the riverine forest for Pel's fishing owl, and the floodplain specials are covered on our wildlife page.
Reserve rules
- Be inside your campsite outside gate hours (06:00 to 18:30 April to September, 05:30 to 19:00 October to March). The two gates are South Gate and North Gate.
- No night drives, no walking safaris, no off-road driving anywhere in the reserve, Chief's Island included.
- Speed limit 40 km/h; maximum three vehicles per campsite.
- Campsites are unfenced. Zip tents fully (hyaena incidents are recorded), never walk unlit at night, and do not bring apples or citrus: elephants will go through anything between them and the fruit.
- Fishing is closed nationally in January and February.
- Assume drones are prohibited: Botswana requires civil aviation registration and permits, and the parks are not open to casual drone use. Do not fly without written DWNP and CAAB authorisation.