Self-Drive Botswana: Sand, Fuel, Vet Fences and Campsites

Botswana is two different driving countries. One is tar: long, straight, mostly good highways between towns. The other starts at the park gate, where the road becomes two wheel ruts in sand and your average speed drops to 25 km/h. Plans go wrong when people mix the two up.

Tar or sand: which car for which trip

A normal car is fine for the towns. The A1 runs from Gaborone to Francistown, the A3 from Francistown through Nata and Maun to Ghanzi, the A33 from Nata up to Kasane, and the A2 (the Trans-Kalahari) west from Lobatse to Namibia. The UK government says good tarmac roads cover most of the country. So a Gaborone, Maun, Kasane loop in a sedan works if you see the parks on guided drives and boat trips.

You need a proper 4x4 with low range the moment you want to drive yourself inside:

• Moremi and Savuti. Thick sand, and mud in Moremi. SKL, which runs the Savuti, Linyanti and Khwai campsites, says they are reached by 4x4.
• The rest of Chobe, riverfront included. Tracks4Africa says even the riverfront road has a stretch of deep sand where two-wheel-drive bakkies get stuck.
• Central Kalahari and Khutse. Tracks4Africa calls the Central Kalahari the remotest park in the country, for experienced drivers only.
• Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan. Sand, and in the wet season water on the pans and some roads you can’t get through at all.
• Kgalagadi, Botswana side.

Be wary of “4x4 or similar” on a booking form. Tracks4Africa warns that the big hire brands may hand you a soft SUV, which is no use here.

Tyre pressures in sand

Letting air out is what gets you through, more than power or skill. Tracks4Africa’s advice is about 1.2 bar for soft sand and perhaps as low as 0.8 bar, with 0.8 bar the floor for radial tyres. How low depends on your load. On gravel, about 1.8 bar and no faster than 80 km/h.

Your hire car should come with a compressor and a pressure gauge. Check both work before you leave the depot. Stay in the existing ruts, where the sand is packed firmer. Keep a steady pace in low range and don’t brake hard, since momentum once lost is hard to get back. If you stop moving, stop spinning the wheels: let more air out, clear the sand from in front of the tyres and reverse out along your own tracks. Then pump up again before the tar.

Fuel: where it runs out

There is no fuel for sale inside any national park or game reserve. SKL says so plainly in its conditions of entry.

The gap that catches people is Maun to Kasane through Moremi and Savuti. 4x4 Afrika is flat about it: no fuel stations. The distance is only a few hundred kilometres, but low range in sand uses far more fuel than tar, and you’ll add game drives every day. Fill the main tank, the long range tank if you have one, and jerry cans in Maun, or in Kasane if you are coming south.

The Central Kalahari is the same story with less traffic. You bring your own food, drinking water and firewood. One Tracks4Africa writer carried 50 litres a vehicle for showers, dishes and the kettle, on top of drinking water, for six nights. Rakops is the village on the way in from the north-east. A forum poster coming out of the reserve in September 2023 wrote that they “even got diesel” there, which is not how people talk about a pump they rely on.

On the tar, filling stations are scarce between the main towns, and the towns are far apart. A traveller reported all three stations in Nata without diesel for two days in September 2023, with Shell and Caltex in Maun dry the same week. Top up whenever you pass a pump, even at half a tank.

Campsites and park fees: two bookings, two payments

The campsite and the park entry are booked and paid seperately. Most campsites inside the parks are leased to private operators. Park entry always goes to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP).

Who	Campsites
SKL Group of Camps	Savuti (14 sites) and Linyanti (5) in Chobe, Khwai at Moremi’s North Gate, Khumaga in Makgadikgadi
Xomae Group	Third Bridge in Moremi (8 sites), South Camp and Baines Baobab in Nxai Pan
Kwalate Safaris	Ihaha on the Chobe riverfront, South Gate and Xakanaxa in Moremi
Bigfoot Tours	Khutse, and Passarge, Piper, Sunday, Lekhubu and Letiahau in the Central Kalahari
DWNP itself	Deception, Kori, Leopard, Phokoje, Xade, Bape and Xaka in the Central Kalahari, most of the Kgalagadi, Tree Island in Makgadikgadi

Operator rates for international visitors in 2026: SKL charges US$50 an adult a night plus a P10 bed levy. Xomae charges P561 a person a night at Third Bridge and Baines Baobab and P428.40 at Nxai South, rising to P600 and P500 in 2027. Last checked 12 October 2026. Kwalate’s website would not load when I checked, so I have no current rate for its three camps. Ask for a quote when you book.

Park fees, under the schedule in force since 1 April 2022. The ministry planned to raise them on 1 April 2026 and postponed the rise the day before. Gabz FM reported in May that it had been put off for two years. Last checked 12 October 2026. The full tables are on the fees page.

Per day	Chobe and Moremi	All other parks and reserves
Non-resident adult, booking privately	P270	P190
Foreign-registered vehicle under 3,500 kg	P115 in Chobe, P75 in Moremi	P75
Botswana-registered vehicle under 3,500 kg	P30 in Chobe, P20 in Moremi	P20

Two people in a Botswana-hired 4x4 at Third Bridge therefore pay P560 a day to DWNP and P1,122 a night to Xomae.

The order matters. Book and pay the campsites first, then send the operators’ invoices to DWNP (dwnp@gov.bw) or take them to the DWNP office in Maun, next to the police station on Sir Seretse Khama Road, or in Gaborone at Moedi House, Fairgrounds. The government’s page gives the hours as 07:30 to 16:30 Monday to Saturday and 07:30 to 12:00 on Sundays, and says you can pay in cash or by credit card. Some gates take the fee on arrival: the Tracks4Africa author paid at reception at the Central Kalahari and Khutse. I would not bank on that for Moremi or Savuti, because SKL’s rule is blunt: no entry without its voucher and a DWNP permit. Tracks4Africa says to book a year ahead.

Inside the parks the speed limit is 40 km/h and SKL’s check-out time is 10:00. SKL gives gate hours as 06:00 to 18:30 in winter and 05:30 to 19:00 in summer.

Veterinary fences

Long cattle fences cut Botswana into disease control zones, there to keep foot and mouth away from the beef herds. Where a road crosses one, expect to drive through a disinfectant dip, stand on a wet mat and open the fridge. Keep your shoes and the cool box where you can reach them.

The general pattern, as Tracks4Africa describes it, is that raw meat may travel north and west towards the buffalo areas but not back south or east. So you can carry steak from Maun into Moremi, Savuti and Chobe, but not from Maun to Nxai Pan, Makgadikgadi, Nata or Ghanzi. Cooked meat is allowed, and unpasteurised milk is treated like raw meat.

The rules tighten when there is an outbreak. On 17 February 2026 the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture banned fresh meat and milk from cloven-hoofed animals from leaving zones 3b, 3c, 6a, 6b and 7, and banned importing those products into the country at all. Ask at the first checkpoint what applies now. The practical answer: buy meat in the last town before each park, and cook what’s left before you cross a fence heading south or east.

Night driving, animals and the police

Don’t drive between towns after dark. Canada’s advice is to avoid it and the UK names stray wildlife and livestock as the danger. On the A33 from Nata to Kasane that means elephants standing on the tar. Elsewhere it’s stray livestock, which is harder to see.

The usual limits are 120 km/h on the open road and 60 km/h through towns and villages, stepping down through 100 and 80 on the way in. Travellers on the 4x4 Community forum report police with radar around the villages, where the limit steps down. One 2017 post has spot fines of up to P500, and potholes about 20 km before Nata bad enough that 30 km/h was the safe speed. The blood alcohol limit is 0.05%.

The UK says a photocard licence is good for 90 days. Canada says its citizens need an International Driving Permit as well. I’d carry one. If you’re American, my guide to driving with a US license has the permit, rental ages and cross-border fees.

Crossing borders with a car

A foreign-registered car enters on a Temporary Import Permit from the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) at the border. BURS charges a P40 National Road Safety Fund levy, valid to 31 December of that year, and a road transport permit levy on every entry. Tracks4Africa’s border checklist also has you buying vehicle insurance at the counter. BURS publishes no amount for either, so carry pula. BURS’s page says a temporarily imported vehicle may stay 14 days before duty falls due, so if your trip is longer, ask the officer what your permit allows. Last checked 12 October 2026.

For a hire car you need a letter from the rental company authorising you to take it over the border and a certified copy of the registration papers. Tracks4Africa’s older articles add a police clearance for the vehicle, though its editors have since noted that South African police no longer issue one for tourist trips. Ask the hire company what it supplies. Tell the company about every border when you book, not at the counter. Going the other way, from Botswana into Namibia, see my self-drive Namibia guide for the charge on that side.

When you get stuck or break down

There is no phone signal in most of the parks. The UK’s advice for very remote areas is to travel in convoy or carry a satellite phone, and for the Central Kalahari and Kgalagadi I’d want both. Ask the hire company whether a satellite phone is included and who comes if you call.

Carry a spade, a tow strap, a tyre repair kit and two spare wheels. Read the insurance exclusions before you sign. Tracks4Africa lists the common ones: driving after dark, damage underneath the car, the clutch, tyres and glass. Make sure a tow-in is covered. Water is the big one in Moremi. If a crossing looks deep, go round. Tracks4Africa’s advice at Khwai is not to try the river but to use the log bridge in the village.

How long the common legs take

Leg	Distance	Allow
Francistown to Nata (tar)	180 km	a morning
Maun to Nata (tar)	300 km	the same distance as Nata to Kasane, so plan on much the same
Nata to Kasane (tar)	just over 300 km	4 to 4.5 hours
Maun to Khwai or into Moremi	100 to 120 km	4 hours
Moremi South Gate to Third Bridge	58 km	2 hours
Khwai to Savuti	100 to 120 km	4 hours
Savuti to the Chobe riverfront	160 km	4 hours
Chobe riverfront to Kasane	up to 60 km	30 minutes to 1 hour

Add the sand legs up and Maun to Kasane through the parks is about 13 hours behind the wheel. Don’t try it in under two days. With two nights each in Moremi and Savuti it becomes the reason you came. If you only have one day, take the tar through Nata.

Places to stay and eat along these routes are on the Botswana page.