Fiona Bruce: Our first family safari From the monkeys that try to sneak into your room to the river just in front where you can watch warthogs, buffaloes, crocodiles, hippos - all from the comfort of the deck with a gin and tonic in your hand. I lay on a sun lounger to catch forty winks after the overnight flight to be woken by a family of elephants who'd come to drink in the river. They walked so close to the deck, I could have reached out and touched them. Matt, our South African tour guide, arrived to take us on our first game drive. He's a man who loves his job and loves the animals, greeting his favourite elephant with, "Hello, big girl," and hippos with, "Hello, big fatty." His enthusiasm was infectious. Whether he was taking us fishing, on a walking safari, a canoe trip up the river or bouncing us through the bush in his landrover, he was full of fascinating nuggets of information - who knew there was such a thing as a mashed potato bush? Next stop Chinzombo in the South Luangwa National Park. The blurb provided by the travel agency promised that Chinzombo is a bush camp that 'breaks the mould. It does - and then some. I felt as if I'd stepped into a Vogue safari shoot, the lodge is the ultimate in tasteful, luxurious design. It's all brand spanking new but the emphasis is on heritage with timber, khaki canvas and leather. The library in the central seating/eating area is filled with books and mementoes, on the walls are black and white photos of Norman Carr in the fifties and sixties, the founder of the safari company and adopted father of two lions that accompanied him everywhere. Our tented lodge, one of six, was enormous with pillow soft loungers on an outside deck where you could dip into the plunge pool or lie back and watch the wildlife gathering at the river below. The hippos snorting underwater was a comforting sound as I dropped off to sleep, like being serenaded by an orchestra of tubas. Or the elephants outside the lodge one night, so close, I could hear their ears flapping. In case you're thinking it all sounds too cosseted and cushy to be an authentic bush experience, I've got to tell you I absolutely loved it. And once we were out on our walking safari, it was the real deal. We spied a group of hyenas about a hundred and fifty yards away, ripping apart an impala. We could hear its bones cracking. Almost entirely hidden in the long grass were three leopards, looking disgruntled even from a distance as their kill was devoured. Suddenly one took advantage of a moment's inattention by the hyenas, darted forward, snatched the impala carcass and dragged it up a tree as quickly and effortlessly as if it weighed nothing at all. The speed and power were terrifying to behold. A couple of days spent at Mchenja lodge, further into the national park was a drive into lion country. I knew for sure when I was woken on our first night by the unmistakable sound of a lion's guttural cough, so close I could hear its paws padding in the dusty soil just outside our tent. I couldn't get back to sleep until hours later. Here the terrain was very different, reminiscent of first world war landscapes, featureless but for the tree stumps - the trees felled not by continuous shelling but by elephants ripping off the bark and leaving behind only dying shards of timber, poking jagged shapes into the sky. Among the herds of elephants, we saw lions aplenty, never for me an entirely comfortable experience. As we sat in our customised jeep watching a lion relaxing in the long grass no less than a metre or two away, I kept wondering if the lion was thinking it was snack time. It was preying on my mind too when we walked into the bush with our guide Simon. But after half an hour or so I was too diverted by the masterclass in animal footprints to be anxious. From the tiny elephant shrewprints, as tiny as if made by my little finger to prints made by elephants themselves, great circles in the dust with a deeper indentation at the front where the elephant dragged its massive foot forwards before lifting it clear of the ground. And then there was the endless supply of different droppings - so fascinating, who knew? Elephant dollops (a handy football), giraffe pellets (make very nice earrings apparently) and impala droppings (if you scoop up a handful when still warm, the pellets dance in your hand like jumping beans). We were new to safari and new to Zambia but we'd managed to find ourselves in the perfect place. On our last evening as I watched dozens of ravening crocodiles tear apart a hippo carcass half submerged in the river, I have to admit it did cross my mind that it might be a relief to return home where nothing wanted to eat me. But our days in the bush had been an unforgettable experience. And I'll never watch those David Attenborough documentaries in the same way again. Perhaps next time I bump into him at BBC Broadcasting House, I could suggest he devote a new series to the enthralling varieties of dung. I reckon it's a ratings winner... Fiona Bruce travelled with luxury travel specialist Scott Dunn (0208 682 5070; scottdunn.com), which offers an 11-night trip to Zambia incorporating some of the elements described above from £7,049 per person, based on a family of four travelling together. The price includes economy class return flights, two nights at Chongwe River Safari House, two nights at Chinzombo, two nights at Mchenja Bush Camp and five nights at Kaya Mawa on Likoma Island (Lake Malawi): fully inclusive on safari; full board at Kaya Mawa. Five great new safari experiences Richard Madden rounds up the best of the new ways to see Africa's enthralling wildlife