I hail from a family of wildlife junkies. Ever since I can remember, my parents have carted my brother and me off to the various Indian jungles in pursuit of various wild and exotic creatures. We’ve chased after tiger pugmarks, woken up at unearthly hours and been charged at by elephants (once while on the back of another elephant!). Predictably, every time I call home, my parents interrupt my speeches about TB patients and film making with something along the lines of “That’s great, sweetheart, but when did you say you were going to Kruger?” To say that I’ve been looking forward to this part of the trip would pretty much be the understatement of the year.

After a typically fabulous breakfast at the Sibane Hotel, we set out for the Kruger National Park. This time’s border crossing between Swaziland and South Africa was the antithesis of our last experience: quick, painless and uneventful. The animal spotting began almost immediately after we entered the Park; we saw giraffes and impalas on the way to the lodge. For the next two days, we will be staying at the lovely Shishangeni Lodge, which is located inside the National Park. Our rooms are beautiful, incredibly comfortable and slightly secluded. After another great (and very large) lunch at the lodge, we piled into our jeeps for the Safari.

I have a confession to make: as much as I can pretend to be a wildlife expert back home in India, my conception of African wildlife is pretty much entirely based on the Lion King. A couple of minutes into the Safari, I realized that the Lion King is not only the greatest movie ever, but is also eerily factually accurate. Our Jeeps were even named after different Lion King characters (we got Scar!). Over the course of the three-hour safari, we saw caped buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, elephants, impalas, a civet cat, warthogs… The ranger stopped our Jeep in the middle of the Safari, and we all watched the sun go down while eating Biltong and roasted nuts. It was blissful.

Here’s why I absolutely love forests: everything feels more alive. The air smells different. There are more stars and more trees. The soundtrack is composed of birds and insects and chomping buffaloes. You can almost feel the whole forest breathe in and out, and for a few fleeting minutes, you are given the incredible privilege of being a part of the symphony. There’s something comforting about seeing vast expanses of untouched, unchanged landscape and witnessing the instinctive reactions of animals in the wild. There is no traffic. There is no internet. It’s like being a part of an older, entirely different world than the one that I am used to. I have always associated forests with a certain unique kind of peace. Kruger is full of it.

Right now, so am I.