Anthea Gerrie enjoys the delights of a COVID-friendly cream tea amongst the flora and fauna of Sissinghurst Castle Garden.

The trouble with road-testing a nifty car in crowded England is the limited supply of empty highways on which to open it up.   Which is where the windswept eastern tip of England, where Kent meets Sussex and the intrepid and creative have settled amidst the desolate beauty of Dungeness, comes into its own.

Sitting out on the decking of The Laapa Restaurant with a glass of decent red, as a herd of giraffes, back lit by the sunset, elegantly strolled past was almost too good. If I didn’t know better, I would have said the whole thing was stage managed, such is the genius of a night glamping at Livingstone Lodge.

It is a little after 5pm and I am surrounded by giraffes. Not any old giraffes you understand, but Rothschild Giraffes no less, the tallest land animals on earth. Under the circumstances, you would be forgiven for thinking I am in the Serengeti, or the Maasai Mara perhaps, but you would be wrong, because this is Kent, the garden of England and I am having a ball glamping at Elephant Lodge in the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park