Area · North-eastern Moremi

Khwai

The river country on the reserve's north-eastern edge — predators along the floodplains, night drives the reserve itself cannot offer, and the widest choice of camps.

At a glance

Signature characterRiverfront predators — wild dog and leopard country

Where it sitsNorth-east — along the Khwai River, the reserve's boundary

Best broadlyRewarding all year; sharpest June to October

AccessKhwai Airstrip, or by road through North Gate

Show all 4 factsShow less

The area

The lively edge.

Khwai is the part of Moremi most trips can reach, and the part where a day holds the most. The Khwai River is the reserve's north-eastern boundary: the reserve on one bank, a community concession and a large private reserve on the other, and no fence anywhere between them. Game crosses as it pleases — elephant and buffalo down to the water, lion and leopard along the banks, wild dog through the lot. The camps are on the concession side, and that matters more than it sounds: outside the reserve's rules they drive after dark, most of them walk, and most add a mokoro when the water allows.

The price of all that is company. This is the busiest corner of Moremi — linked by road, open to self-drivers and mobile safaris, with more camps than any other area — and at a good sighting in the dry season you will seldom be alone. If solitude is the point of the trip, look to Chief's Island, or to the private reserve behind the river, where only its own camps drive. If a first safari has to deliver, or a family has to be kept busy, Khwai is the sound choice.

On the map

Between the reserve and its neighbours.

Khwai is Moremi's north-eastern corner, along the river of the same name. South of the water is the reserve; north of it, the community concession around Khwai village and, behind that, the private reserve — two hundred thousand hectares between Moremi and Chobe. North Gate, the reserve's northern entrance, is at the village, with the sand road onward to Savuti and Chobe.

See how the whole reserve divides

KhwaiS 19°10′ · E 23°45′

01Wildlife here

Predators, along the river.

Khwai is where Moremi's predators are easiest to follow. The floodplains beside the river are open enough to keep a hunt in view, and the riverine trees behind them are leopard habitat from one end of the area to the other. Lion work both banks. Wild dog are the signature: packs range across this country all year and den here from around June, when sightings turn from luck into something steadier. In the dry months elephant and buffalo come down to the river in numbers, and hippo keep the pools.

After dark the concession side adds what the reserve cannot — a night drive, under a spotlight, for the animals daylight hides — and the Khwai channels are among the best places anywhere to look for Pel's fishing owl. None of it is promised.

The full cast, and where the Big Five stands The wild dog, in depth

02When it suits

Good all year, sharpest in the dry.

Khwai has no closed season and no empty one. The river is permanent water and game keeps to it whatever the flood is doing elsewhere, so drives deliver in every month. From around June the land is drier, the bush thinner, and the animals draw in; by September and October elephant and buffalo mass along the river and the predators work the shrinking pools, in real heat. June is also when the wild dogs den.

The green months are quieter, with young animals, migrant birds and afternoon storms that pass more quickly than most people fear. Mokoro outings depend on the river's level in any season and are never a given. Which month suits your trip is a question of heat, water and price together.

The month decision — water, game, heat and rates

03Getting here

By air from Maun — or by road, if you mean it.

Most guests arrive by light aircraft from Maun. The flight is short — typically thirty to forty-five minutes — and lands at Khwai Airstrip for the river camps, or at the private reserve's own strip for the camps behind the river, with a game drive to camp from there. Flights from Kasane reach Khwai too, which makes it an easy join with Chobe.

Khwai is also the corner of Moremi most often reached by road: North Gate is at the village, and self-drivers and mobile safaris cross here between Moremi, Savuti and Chobe. It is deep-sand, four-by-four country, and the water crossings change with the flood.

Flights, gates and the road in

Sleep on the concession side of the river and the day does not end at sunset — the reserve by day, the night drive after dinner.

04What you do here

Day drives, night drives, walks and water.

The concessions allow what the reserve does not. Inside Moremi, vehicles are back in camp by dark. On the Khwai side most camps drive at night and walk with a guide; most also pole mokoro on the river when its level allows, and the camps on the private reserve's lagoons add boats. Several drive into the reserve as well as their own concession — the reserve by day, the night drive at home.

What each camp offers differs. Not every camp walks, boats belong to the private reserve, and the ages at which children are welcome vary from camp to camp.

Drives, walks, mokoro and boats, compared Every camp, with what each offers

Where to stay here

A camp for most kinds of trip.

Khwai has more camps than any other corner of Moremi, from a village guest house to plunge-pool tents. On the river itself, Machaba Camp is the classic — Meru tents, all ages welcome — and Little Machaba beside it is the four-tent version, for couples or one family. Khwai Leadwood is the contemporary riverfront choice, with a children's club. Behind the river, in the private reserve, Sable Alley is the full-service lagoon base, with boats as well as drives, and Elephant Pan the plainer bush camp at its own waterhole, with a hide at eye level.