The only thing moving was a giraffe making its ungainly yet dignified way across the plains in the middle distance.But the giraffe could walk on. We’d just seen a group of four of the lanky beasts, gently trimming the tops of the bushwillow trees. What we were after was lions, the king of the jungle. (Although we were told there was a bull elephant on the reserve that could kill a rhino with a couple of trunk slams, so perhaps not quite so regal.) The big cats are masters of disguise, however, and are cunningly the exact colour of the sandy soil and grass. According to our guide, Dean Pieters, they could be five feet away and we wouldn’t be able to see them.

There are just four lions on the 50-square-mile Shambala reserve, just a couple of hours north of Johannesburg – along with zebras, giraffes, rhinos, impala, kudu, ostriches, hippos, crocs and warthogs – the whole David Attenborough box set if you will. But the only evidence of lions seen so far had been a few unsettlingly large paw prints.It was winter in South Africa, arguably the best time to spot game, when vegetation is thinner. While the days are pleasantly warm, the clear skies make the evenings cold. Without a hint of a sighting and with the temperature falling, we drove back to the Nelson Mandela Centre for Reconciliation, our base for the night.