Rakops

Rakops, also known as Tsienyane, is a village on the Boteti River in Central District, south-west of the Makgadikgadi pans. The 2022 census counted 7,439 people. Travellers know it for one reason: the track to Matswere Gate of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve starts here. You come here to fill up, let the tyres down and turn west into the sand.

Getting there

Maun is the usual starting point. One party who logged the trip in August 2016 measured about 272 km from Maun to Matswere Gate through Rakops and took around five hours over it. The alternative from Maun is the cutline through Makalamabedi, about 162 km and four hours for the same party, which skips Rakops altogether.

From the village it is 45 km of sand to the gate, badly corrugated, rough and slow. Ordinary cars cannot manage the reserve, so this is 4x4 country from the turn. There is also an airfield, Rakops Airport, with a runway of 1,015 m.

When to go

Your dates will be set by the reserve, not the village. What matters at this end is the track. It has mudholes with black cotton soil at the bottom, and a Tracks4Africa writer who drove it in April 2021 warned readers off it in the rains. That is awkward, because the wet months of November to April are also the traditional time to visit the reserve.

What to do

Very little, and that is fine. Stock up, eat, sleep, leave early.

The exception is the river. The Boteti carries Okavango water down past Rakops towards Lake Xau, and in the dry months it draws in game because so little other water is left. Rakops River Lodge, 10 km out of the village on the B300, has been open since March 2012 and sits on the bank. It has rooms, a campsite with hot-water ablutions, a pool, a restaurant and a bar, and it offers horse riding, fishing, boat and mokoro trips and guided 4x4 drives. The lodge says elephant, eland and ostrich come through.

Good to know

Do not plan your fuel around Rakops. The filling station sells petrol and diesel but it does run dry, and one group in 2016 found no diesel on the way in and still none when a ranger at Matswere phoned ahead for them on the way out. One forum regular fills up at Letlhakane or Mopipi and treats Rakops as a top-up. The pumps are in the village, not on the main road. One driver in 2015 was charged extra for paying by card, so carry pula.

There is no fuel anywhere near the reserve, so what is in your tank and jerry cans when you leave Rakops is what you have.

Boteti is on the CDC’s list of malaria transmission areas in Botswana, and the CDC recommends tablets for those areas. See a travel clinic before you go.

Last updated 12 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, Rakops (Tsienyane name, district, airport), City Population, Botswana (Statistics Botswana 2022 census figure for Tsienyane (Rakops)), Wikipedia, List of populated places in Botswana (2022 census population), Wikipedia, Boteti River (course past Rakops, Lake Xau, dry season wildlife), Wikipedia, Rakops Airport (runway length), Evening Standard, Wild camping in Botswana's Central Kalahari (David Cohen, 20 May 2024), copy on Yahoo News, 4x4 Community forum, Rakops fuel (posts 2015 to 2017, both pages of the thread), Tracks4Africa blog, Why you should visit the remotest park in Botswana (Romi Boom, 8 June 2021, and reader comments), Rakops River Lodge (location, opening date, facilities), Rakops River Lodge (activities), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Botswana (malaria transmission areas).