I wake up to a perfect day to venture out again in our Land Rover, and just before 7am we come across a herd of white rhino, grazing in the wide-open plains. The youngster is particularly cute. This is an extraordinarily endangered species, and, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking – how many more generations will get to see these magnificent animals? They are like dinosaurs, relics of a bygone age, and it's remarkable to see them up close.
Back home, you see rhino in the zoo, but that's like a ballerina in a precinct rather than on stage. Here is where they're meant to be. This is their stage. And an incredible stage it is. The Kruger national park is the size of Wales. Coming from a small country like England, it's astonishingly vast. Our nature reserves are the size of football pitches by comparison.
I look skywards and spot another beautiful yet very endangered species – the saddle-billed stork. There are only 120 pairs of them left in the Kruger park. Then not 10 minutes later, we happen upon a lone giraffe, one of the most Googled animals in the world.
The rangers are your travelling encyclopedias here – they're amazingly knowledgeable – so I'm continually learning. They radio each other to help locate animals, and speak a fascinating mix of English, Zulu and Shangaan. You pick up on the lovely African names for some of the animals. It enriches the experience.
The best part of the day, though, is lingering to watch a pack of 10 wild dogs. They're difficult and evasive, and my absolute favourites! I watch them as they push each other around over the small head of a buck, the only bit left after their kill. Wild dogs are the most efficient hunters in the bush – and it's all down to their teamwork.
Yesterday was the absolute highlight, however. We were surrounded by a breeding herd of elephants, moving so close to us you could almost touch them. It was well over half an hour before we moved off again, and every moment was magical. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, nearly as good as England winning the World Cup!
We've been staying at Sabi Sabi's Little Bush Camp, about as stunning a safari lodge as you can imagine. It offers sublime vistas of the bush from the cool, thatched lounge-dining area and the food is great. Sleep never came so easy. Nor did waking up before sunrise. No better way to start the day than exploring this priceless, timeless piece of nature.
