Fiona Parker

Tracking mountain gorillas through the rainforest in Uganda. We had to work hard to find them - five hours of tough trekking through thick undergrowth in the heat and mud. We were exhausted, but then we found them, hidden away in a clearing, these huge, majestic creatures that immediately commanded respect. Utterly mesmerising. The Battlefield tour at Rorkes Drift in Kwazulu Natal. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but the desolate beauty of the environment and sheer descriptive skill of the guide brought the history of the battlefields to life and me to tears. Walking in the Ngorongoro Highlands and down into Lake Natron with Masai guides. The area is stunningly beautiful, from mountain plateaus to craters, volcanoes, deserts and salt pans. It is remote and wild, with few other people, but the Masai.

As a student, I went on a very cheap safari in Zambia. Our safari car was a clapped out old escort and needless to say it broke down. It was getting dark, we had no radio, mobile phones, torch, water or provisions and our guide looked more scared than we did. We had to fix the car in the middle of the bush in the dark and drive out with only one front light and a very dodgy engine. Praying that we wouldn’t come across anything that we needed to avoid in a hurry! It taught me it is worth paying a little bit more for a decent guide and operator.