Samburu National Park occupies a stark but stunning spot in northern Kenya. It's a semi-arid and severe landscape, but the life-giving Ewaso Ng'iro River sustains riverine forest and all manner of wildlife along its banks. Beyond lie scrubby, dusty savannah and the Buffalo Springs and Shaba reserves.

Samburu, combined with these reserves, in a luxury tailor-made safari, probably offers the best chance of spotting leopard in Kenya. Sightings are most likely when the leopards emerge from the forests at dusk- when the sun sends the river red and birdsong fills the darkening sky. As well as leopard, lion, elephant and buffalo can be seen, but dry-environment breeds such as oryx and gerenuk are special sightings too.