It’s first thing on Monday morning and my commute has been interrupted by a herd of elephants.

Yep, you read that right. I’m in the depths of the Serengeti National Park, a World Heritage Site, and our jeep has slowed to a stop in the middle of a bumpy, uneven track. Five elephants are ambling across the track in front of us, lazily swinging their trunks and paying us absolutely no attention at all. We, on the other hand, are all pressed against the jeep windows, iPhones gripped in our hands, filming five identical videos. The biggest of the elephants stops without warning in front of a giant tree and effortlessly snaps it in half with his trunk, causing a massive crack to echo across the endless plains around us. I decide that elephants are now my favourite animal of all.

“The Serengeti is the animal’s natural habitat, and we try to disturb them as little as possible,” our friendly (and knowledgeable) guide explains. This means that when the animals want to cross the track, they cross the track.

Why Tanzania is the ultimate destination for a safari