Ruaha National Park

Ruaha is Tanzania's largest national park by some measures and one of the least visited relative to its size. It sits where eastern and southern African species overlap, so you get greater and lesser kudu in the same day, and it holds one of the biggest lion populations on the continent.

Lions, in numbers

Prides here run large — twenty-plus is not unusual — and the Great Ruaha River concentrates everything along it as the dry season bites.

Two Africas at once

Miombo woodland meets acacia savannah. Sable and roan antelope share the park with the more familiar northern species.

Very few vehicles

You can spend a morning at a sighting without another car arriving. That is the whole argument for the southern circuit.