Safari

It's not a pretty sight. The stark landscape of Egypt's desert burns my retinas, forcing me to squint as I scan the quivering, molten, 40°C scene before me. Besides my two friends, our jeep driver, there's not a soul around, nor is there a signal that life could survive here - even if it wanted to. Instead, ochre sands meet dark smatterings of iron ore from the region's volcanic rock formations. It's a surreal corner of the earth almost entirely untouched by mankind.

It's morning and I am geared up for action in the far-flung east of Poland's beautiful Podlaskie Volvodship, Biebrza National Park is 60,000 hectares of marshy flatlands, gentle river valley and moose-concealing pine forests. This is a landscape of wetlands and peat bogs, bordering the Biebrza river and home to hundreds of different bird species, thousands of insect species, 900 moose, red deer, wild boar, hares, rabbits and even wolf packs and solitary lynxes. It's going to be a good day.

The baby wildebeest is lying in the long grass, lurching around like an infant learning to walk as it strains to get back on its feet. It would be cute, if only it wasn't struggling so much - but then the lioness, her mouth dripping with blood, digs her fangs back into the baby's throat, and the flailing ends; the wildebeest has succumbed and the queen of the jungle is ready to enjoy her fresh kill.

Sossusvlei in the Namibian Desert is one of the landscapes making the difference to the Namibian destination. This region also forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, making it perfect for a Balloon Safari. Stretching 1,000km (1,000 miles) along the Atlantic cost of Namibia and varying from 50 – 160km (30 – 100 mile) in width expanding into southwest Angola.  The Namib is one of the world’s oldest desert over 50 millions years of dry times behind it. The Namibian desert has an average of less than 10mm (0.4inch) of rain each year.