Moremi Game Reserve, where the Delta meets dry land.
Roughly a third of the Okavango Delta, set aside by the BaTawana in 1963, and the one part of it you can drive into. Lion, leopard, wild dog and a great deal of water.
A reserve created by the people who lived beside it.
By the early 1960s, hunting was emptying the eastern Okavango fast enough to worry the BaTawana, whose land it was. In 1963 they set it aside as a game reserve and named it after Chief Moremi III, with his widow, Mrs Elizabeth Pulane Moremi, then regent, as its champion. It is often described as the first reserve in Africa created by a local community on its own land.
The reserve has been extended since, most importantly to take in Chief’s Island, the largest landmass in the Delta, and it now covers close to 5,000 square kilometres. What makes it unusual is the mix: permanent lagoons and papyrus in the north and west, seasonal floodplain, and long tongues of dry mopane and acacia woodland pushing in from the east.
That mix is why Moremi delivers both halves of a Delta safari from one base. You can spend the morning on a boat among the reeds and the afternoon following a lion pride across a drying floodplain. It is also the only part of the Delta with a road into it, which makes it the backbone of every mobile camping journey we run.
Moremi Game Reserve: the essentials.
- WhereThe eastern and central Okavango Delta, about 100 km north of Maun
- SizeClose to 5,000 km², including Chief’s Island
- Best monthsJuly to October for dry-season game; December to March for birds and newborns
- Getting thereBy road from Maun through South Gate, or by light aircraft to a reserve airstrip
- How you see itGame drives, plus boat and mokoro trips from Xakanaxa and Mboma
- Who it suitsFirst-timers, mobile safaris, and anyone who wants the Delta without flying everywhere
The parts of Moremi worth knowing by name.
Xakanaxa
Lagoons and papyrus on the edge of permanent water in the north. Boat trips run out to the heronries in season, and the riverine woodland behind them is good leopard country.
Third Bridge and Mboma
A pole bridge over the Sekiri River, and the island beyond it with a mokoro station. Lion and wild dog move through the area often, and the campsite has a long reputation for visits from both.
South Gate and the mopane
The way in from Maun, through mopane woodland that holds elephant in the dry months. Quieter than the north, and the first place most mobile safaris camp.
North Gate and the Khwai River
The reserve’s northern edge, where the river divides Moremi from the Khwai community concession. Elephant cross here at dusk through most of the dry season.
Chief’s Island
Deep in the west and reached only by air or water. Rhino have been reintroduced here, though sightings are rare and their whereabouts are kept quiet, and it is the territory of the fly-in camps.
Wild dog
Moremi and the concessions around it hold one of the more important wild dog populations left in Africa. Packs den from about June to August, which is the most reliable time to find them.
What guests ask us about Moremi Game Reserve.
Can you self-drive in Moremi?
Yes, with a properly equipped 4×4, recovery gear, and campsites booked well ahead. The sand is deep, some roads flood in the high-water months, and there is no fuel inside the reserve. It is not where we would send anyone on their first African self-drive. Our mobile safaris put a licensed Motswana guide behind the wheel instead.
Is Moremi better than a private concession?
Different rather than better. Moremi is a game reserve: drives run between sunrise and sunset, vehicles stay on the roads, and at a famous sighting in August you may share it. The game density is exceptional and the cost is lower. The concessions around it allow night drives, walking and off-road tracking, with very few vehicles. Many of our itineraries use both.
When does the water reach Moremi?
The flood usually starts to rise in the reserve around May and peaks between July and September. In a big flood year some roads and crossings around Third Bridge close, and we route around them. It varies from year to year, so we check the levels before we fix a plan.
How many nights should we spend in Moremi?
Three is a good minimum, ideally split between two areas — Xakanaxa and Third Bridge, say, or South Gate and the Khwai River. Each part of the reserve has a different character, and moving once lets you see more of it without spending the trip packing.
How to fit Moremi Game Reserve into a journey.
It features in these three signature journeys, and we build it into tailor-made routes all the time.
Often combined with Moremi Game Reserve.
Keep reading
- The Okavango Delta — how the flood works, and water camps against land camps
- Mobile camping in Moremi — the Kalahari Collection, and what it costs
- When to go to Botswana — the flood, the rains and the month-by-month picture
Thinking about Moremi Game Reserve?
Tell us when you can travel and what you most want to see, and we will tell you honestly how many nights it deserves and what to pair it with.