Awesome Deb! I am extrememly jealous. My wife & I were fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks in Botswana pre children. A very good high school and college friend ended up there via the Peace Corp in the late 80s.. He loved it so much, he stayed on working in the private sector. He was my wife's and my guide.. Pat's Low Budget, High Adventure Tours.. lol! We spent our time driving around & visiting most of the Parks & Camps in Bots and Vic Falls.. camping in a lrg nylon tent.. my wife did not sleep. The mid point of our trip we spent a couple nights in Kasane on the Chobe R to clean up, sleep in a bed and re-supply.. which we needed to do since a few nights before a hyena had chewed thru our meat coolers. My wife thought it was the damn monkeys messing with our extra, empty 5 gallon water jug we had for when we ventured into the Kalahari.. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she got up out of her sleeping bag to chase them off, only to find the hyena standing in the back of our Toyota pickup, parked adjacent to our tent, shredding our plastic coolers and wolfing down our meat.. I got up to chase it off and it just gave me a 'what are you gonna do' stare. I did nothing but watch (of course this is where I told the nurses I worked with that I then jumped on its back and stuck it in a head lock...lol). One more story if I may continue this digression.. my appologies to the board.. central Kalahari Desert.. full moon.. the last few nights that we spent in the bush.. it is late and cold and we have been sleeping for a few hrs when my wife wakes us up saying she has heard lions making territorial calls.. and they're close. So we get up, fire up the Toyota and head out looking for them. We drive around for an hr or so with no luck. We get back to camp and get ready to turn back in when my buddy says he's going to stay up for a while and drink a cup.. so I stoke the fire up real well for him, and hand him his sleeping bag to help keep warm and he hunkers down in a chair by the fire.. My wife and I proceed to climb back into our bags in the tent cuz its cold and go back to sleep. Well my buddy really had to evacuate his bowls, that's whyn he stayed up.. he walked about 75 ft down the track dug his hole, did his thing, covered it, then came back into camp, climbed into his sleeping bag in his chair next to the fire... and proceeded to.. fall asleep (unplanned). The fire died down.. he wasn't sure how long he'd been a sleep, but he did know exactly what it was that woke him.. exactly what is was that sniffed.. he slowly looked over his shoulder, trying not move too much, and there he was.. a big male lion... about fifteen feet away, and stepping closer.. tail twitching up in the air.. that's when he noticed the second one little behind. 'You've done it now Patrick' he thought.. He looked at the truck.. the doors are supposed to be left open at night in case one needs to seek more secure refuge.. the door on his side was closed.. chit. He'd never'a made it anyway. OK.. think.. what to do... crunch.. the lions need to be distracted.. how? He began to softly call out our names.. thankfully my wife did not sleep while we were there.. she wakes up gets up and begins to unzip the tent.. Pat says do not come out here.. the lions are in camp.. they are nearly on me, make some noise. So, by this time I am awake, with my shoes on, and my wife begins singing the only song she can think of.. the bear went over the mountain... the lions' attention is immediately drawn to our tent, our nylon tent. Over they come... one walked along our tent and its side slid along the side of the tent, indenting it as he went... I unzipped one of the window covers to get a good look and right there 6 ft away was one of those male lions. looking me directly in the eye.. holy ... I zipped the window closed. I felt semi safe in the tent (ignorance is bliss).. finally we heard the door slam on the Toyota.. thank goodness Patrick was safe! Now we were the ones in the most danger... the truck started up, and the lions spooked a bit, but came right back into camp.. right into the headlight beams they walked.. we got really good looks then as they approached our tent again... then a horn honk, and off they rumbled.. like a heard of buffalo it was so loud as they ran off. We jettisoned from the tent and jumped into the truck.. the relief and adrenaline flow was overwelming.. Patrick's smile was ear to ear and his eyes as large as saucers. So what did we do.. we fired the rig up and went looking for them! Again no luck.. so we headed back to camp just as it was begining to get light out... as we approached our camp, we noticed those damn lions back in there, and they came down to us as we approached... in fact we had to stop the rig in the track as they laid down right in front of us.. heads up, checking us out.. smelling the air.. staring at us.. about fifteen minutes later they decided to move on, it was dawn now.. the more agressive of the two walked around our rig and approached.. got to within about ten feet and just stared in at us.. wheels turning.. tail twitching.. then turned and joined his partner & walked back out to the pan. Beautiful healthy animals.. younger, not pride leaders yet, probably 5 or 6 yrs old... and need to kill and eat everything they can. My buddy was extremely lucky, and we have a memory that will never ever fade. No pics but I did shoot some awesome video of them.

Deb, be safe & be careful.. take lots of pics & video and keep a journal, and when you are out in the bush, breathe in the air, and the magnificently clean.. aroma. Enjoy and I look foward to a bunch of pics when you return!!

--ps.. please say hello to Bots for me