Luckily, I didn’t learn these from my personal experience but instead from the experiences of our two guides, Pascal and Prosper, who led us through nine days of adventure. I’m not exaggerating when I use the word ‘adventure’ as it often felt like we were in the middle of our own David Attenborough documentary.

This wasn’t my first safari, but it was my first time in Tanzania, and I was keen to witness the wildebeest migration. I was travelling with three friends, all celebrating ‘big’ birthday years and four other travellers in the group. We had a gentle introduction with two nights in Arusha, on the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley, where we canoed on Lake Duluti, spotting giant monitor lizards, fish eagles, hornbirds, cormorants and monkeys. I say we ‘canoed’ but in my case, I sat in the front of the canoe whilst an expert guide paddled behind, but if you’re confident on the water, you can paddle your own canoe.

From there, it was game drives all the way, with our first stop being Tarangire National Park. This first park felt a bit overcrowded with vehicles, but that feeling dissipated as we entered the vastness of the Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti plains for the remainder of our time. Ngorongoro Crater has been described as the Noah’s Ark of Africa and is home to over 30,000 species of animals.

We did see the ‘Big Five’ - we are claiming the rhino after someone managed to catch its back and horn in the distance of a zoom lens! However, everything else we saw at very close quarters: a multitude of lions, a leopard asleep in a tree next to its kill, herds of elephants and the angry-looking buffaloes in their massive closed ranks with those huge horns that resemble magistrates' wigs staring us down.

Every day was an embarrassment of riches, but the highlights have to be:

• Witnessing a lioness and a gazelle in the Ngorogoro Crater, initially unaware of each other, until the lioness spotted her prey and quietly stalked, chased and made her kill a few feet in front of us.
• Coming across a cheetah in the Serengeti, standing between her four cubs and a lioness before darting towards the lion, lashing out with her claws to distract him in order to defend them. High drama unfolded before the story ended well with the cheetah and her cubs escaping – the picture I’ve included here was taken as they ran away.
• Being on the opposite bank of a waterhole after a breakfast in the bush as a herd of elephants came down to drink and wash, one of which was a newborn calf whose legs were so wobbly, its mother had to help him down the slope before he kept face planting into the water.
• A night safari where we expected to see small animals and perhaps a hyena, but instead almost immediately came across a lion beginning his nightly prowls and a leopard in the long grass who retreated to a waterhole and lay down with her legs in the air.
• Watching a group of wildebeest trying to pluck up the courage to cross the crocodile-infested Mara River in the north so they could continue their pilgrimage to greener lands in the south.

I could go on. Each time we thought a day couldn’t be beaten, it was. Our guides were excellent drivers, excellent spotters and their intuition was invaluable as they instinctively seemed to know where to go to get us the best experiences.

The trip was even more enhanced by the places we stayed and the dining experiences. Our accommodation felt part of the adventure as it was often built right into or in the middle of the wilderness. Four nights were spent in high-quality lodges, with the other five in tented camps. Local staff escort you to and from your tents in the dark and keep watch during the night to ensure safety. 

I expected not to sleep well in the tents, but they were so comfortable and cosy, I slept like a log. This was unfortunate on at least one of the nights, as I missed the deep rumble of a lion in proximity to the camp that had my fellow travellers enthralled. I did hear the occasional hyena, though. On our final night, the guide who escorted me to breakfast pointed out a small tree by the reception that had been pushed down during the night by an elephant. Then pointed to the culprit standing not more than 100 metres away, enjoying breakfast.

Bearing in mind, we were often in the middle of nowhere, the food was plentiful and fresh, and often served over four courses by attentive staff wherever we went. Three of us were vegetarians, and we may have had the best deal as there was a lot of variety. My favourite meals, though, were the more basic ones:

• Lunch in an outdoor camp at the Ngorogoro Crater, cooked on coals outside with monkeys looking on, ready to launch stealth attacks on the bread basket at any time.
• Breakfast at a watering hole after a morning walking safari at dawn, looking at fish eagles and hornbills in the trees.
• Picnic at an airfield, sitting on a Maasai rug.
• Having an aperitif before dinner each night, watching the stunning African sunsets

Tanzania does this type of trip extremely well. They protect national parks and game reserves, have effective anti-poaching measures and engage the community in conservation so they can understand how humans and wildlife can live in harmony. We met a few guides along the way, and we could tell they care deeply about the wildlife they are showing us. Hugely knowledgeable, committed and professional, their passion for the richness of their wildlife was inspiring.

So, this is a trip for anyone with a love of wildlife, a taste for adventure and who is not easily spooked by animal noises in the night. If this is your first safari, you may decide it will also be your last because, in all honesty, this one is hard to beat.