The Okavango Delta supports an array of wildlife that is as different as the habitats created by the river. As you move north, the water world occupied by hippos, crocodiles and exotic birds yields to the larger game of the savannah; wildebeests, cape buffalo, hyena, giraffe, antelope, zebra, lion and, of course, elephant.

There are nearly three-dozen tented camps in the central and northern area of the Okavango to choose from. But to call these "tents" in the usual sense of that word is a lot like calling the Queen Mary a "boat." While the structure is canvas, the tents are as large as hotel rooms and include hot and cold running water, showers, toilets, electric lamps and beds so soft, any couch potato would think they had died and gone to heaven. Amenities such as towels and soap and shampoo are first rate.

One price per night includes your tent, three meals, wine and spirits, bottled water, morning and afternoon game safaris and jeeps with guides.

I stayed in a camp known as Duba Plains. This region is home to lion prides, elephant and a variety of large hoofed mammals. Paul Thiery, a camp manager with unsinkable enthusiasm, gave up a career in London as a stock trader to live in the bush. I knew he was from Great Britain because it wasn't 1:30; it was "hof-pahst-one."

As we stood in the camp's dining area exchanging niceties, a trumpeting, charging and generally angry bull elephant chased one of the cooks from the kitchen. Letty threw herself across the threshold of the doorway where we were standing, arriving breathless and nervous but laughing as if this was what she did every day: bolt panic stricken from the kitchen area to the dining structure while being chased by an enraged elephant. "I know you think this was planned to impress you but really ... that is an angry wild bull elephant!" Thiery said. He could barely suppress a smile. Then he became fatherly, "Everyone needs to stay put until he's had his fill of that fruit he's seems quite fond of."

You have to love Africa. It is wildly unpredictable.

When I arrived at my tent, I noticed a book on the nightstand. As a writer, I have a natural liking for books so I picked it up, plopped down and flipped open Reay Smithers' "Land Mammals of Southern Africa; A Field Guide." It is written in the kind of English that sounds a lot like a foreign language to Americans. Take the description of the African elephant at page 130, for example; "Enormous and unmistakable." Only an Englishman could describe an 8,000-pound, angry bull elephant that charged the dining area earlier that day in three words, including the conjunction.

Several days later, a Cessna dropped off arriving guests and carried me to the dusty Linyanti lowlands to the north. A Mitsubishi pulled up alongside the plane with a young man named Mabure at the wheel. He had an infectious grin. "Are there many elephant here?" I asked, hoping that we would see some of the huge herds noted to roam this region. "Sir," he began with mock exasperation in his voice, "by the time you leave Selinda Camp, you will never want to see another elephant ever again!" I doubt it.

Michael and Bastienne Schwarzer managed Selinda Camp, and they confirmed that the elephant were here in overwhelming numbers; 80,000 head give or take. For elephant lovers, the next day would have been a memory of a lifetime. We sat at a watering hole until dusk and waited as a thousand head of elephant wandered down for a drink. Being surrounded by that many wild, trumpeting elephant is both exhilarating and spooky. As darkness approached, the bulls became skittish and several charged our jeep as we wound our way through the herd. Nothing will get your attention quicker than a charging pachyderm.

Which leads me to the lessons a safari in Africa will teach you. First, living in a "tent" doesn't mean you have to live in a tent. Second, because they go anywhere anytime, Land Rovers rule. And third, in the Setswana language, aloha is "Jumela!"