Fuel in Botswana: where to fill up before the Kalahari tracks

Along the tarred road linking Gaborone to Kasane via Francistown and Nata, refuelling is never an issue: the major brands Shell, Caltex, Engen and Puma run stations in every main town — Gaborone, Francistown, Serowe, Palapye, Nata, Maun, Kasane — as well as in Ghanzi, Kang and Letlhakane along the trans-Kalahari highway that crosses the country east to west.

These town stations work as everywhere else: petrol and diesel available without booking, card payment accepted at most major brands (keep some cash as a backup at smaller stations). The rule that removes the guesswork later: never leave one of these towns without a full tank, even if the gauge only shows half-empty — it’s the last reliable refuelling point before several hundred kilometres of track.

Between Maun and Kasane, whether via the direct road or through Moremi and Chobe, plan on roughly 370 km with no reliable fuel station. There is a small Puma pump at Muchenje, about 65 km from Kasane, but travellers and specialist forums regularly report it out of stock or closed: it should never be factored into a range calculation, only treated as a bonus if it happens to be open on the day.

In practice, that means filling up completely in Maun before heading to Moremi and Chobe, and relying on that single tank all the way to Kasane — or the reverse. For a standard 4x4, which burns noticeably more on sand and corrugated tracks than on tar (often 15 to 20 L/100 km versus 10 to 12 L/100 km on the road), the safety margin needs to account for that extra consumption, not just the distance shown on the map.

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve takes this a step further: no fuel station at all inside the park, on loops that can exceed 500 km of sand track. The last refuelling point on the eastern side is the village of Rakops, about three hours of track (45 km) from Matswere gate — and even there, fuel availability isn’t guaranteed: it’s a village pump, not a major-brand station.

Travellers who cover the Central Kalahari over a week or more report setups ranging from a 130 L main tank plus two 20 L jerry cans, up to a 160 L tank topped up with 40 L of jerry cans for the longest stays. The rule of thumb among specialist rental companies: leave with a full tank and at least 20 L extra in jerry cans for any multi-day trip into the Central Kalahari or Khutse, and more if the route includes detours or several days without passing through a town.

These figures, drawn from self-drive travellers’ and specialist rental companies’ reports, offer a baseline to plan around — to be adjusted for the actual consumption of the rented vehicle and the number of detours planned.

The major stations in the main towns sell both petrol and diesel without any particular issue. What’s worth checking before departure is the small village pumps, like the one in Rakops: they may stock only one fuel type, or run dry exactly when you need them most. Confirming the exact fuel type of the rented vehicle with the agency before leaving avoids a bad surprise far from any town.

On remote tracks, fuel quality itself also deserves some caution: ageing storage tanks, dust and moisture can contaminate fuel at small isolated pumps. Fill up at major-brand stations whenever possible, and keep in mind the steps to take if contaminated fuel does end up in the tank — the same issue comes up in other southern African countries and the precautions are the same.

A study by Jing Li, Xiaofeng Ji and Fang Chen, published in 2025 in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, looked at what reassures — or instead worries — tourists considering a self-drive trip. Its finding: generalised, anxiety-inducing information overload raises perceived risk and can discourage travel, while concrete, ground-level knowledge gathered in advance reduces that effect and strengthens confidence in the trip.

Applied to Botswana, that translates into something concrete: it’s better to know precisely the three or four real turning points of the route — Maun, Kasane, Rakops, the gate of the park you’re heading to — than to leave with only the vague instruction to “fill up often.” A precise mental map of which stations are reliable, and which aren’t, replaces diffuse worry with actionable preparation.

The Partir en Liberté Botswana guide details, park by park, the refuelling points to build into the itinerary and the equipped 4x4 rental companies — often already fitted with jerry cans and long-range tanks — recommended for tackling the Central Kalahari or the Moremi-Chobe crossing with full self-sufficiency.