A world-renowned place of adventure and exploration, this is a worldwide stage where the brutal and unfettered reality of nature is played out in the greatest wildlife show on earth. Its fertile rolling grasslands, bisected by riverine forests, attract countless game, enticing wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle, which ensures that predators are never too far away and the sense of raw energy on the savannah is palpable.

An idyllic and lesser-visited area that is often referred to as the gateway to Northern Kenya, the Laikipia Plateau is an undiscovered ecosystem of wilderness terrain that covers over two million acres and is home to indigenous Samburu, Kikuyu and Boran tribes. It is estimated that 10% of Kenya’s black rhino community are found here in Lewa, so it is also a good place for Big Five game sighting, whilst avoiding the crowds. Many northern game species are found here, such as gerenuk, Grevy’s Zebra, Jackson’s hartebeest and the reticulated giraffe.

Arguably Kenya at its most untamed and further removed from some of the more mainstream areas, Meru National Park was established in 1968 and is referred to as a ‘remote and rugged wilderness’. Covering an area of 1810 square kilometres, the striking scenery of the park includes Commiphora and Acacia bushland, vast open plains, swampland, doum palms and belts of tropical riverine forest. The 13 rivers and network of mountain springs that feed into the Tana River are the lifeblood of the park and a terrific water source for the animals that roam its plains.

Amboseli National Park is fairly compact compared to other parks in Kenya, covering a total area of 392 square kilometres within the Rift Valley Province in Southern Kenya. Set in the shadow of the majestically looming Mount Kilimanjaro, the park combines stunning scenery with prolific game wildlife roaming its plains. It is understandably one of Kenya’s best areas for safari exploration and can get busy during the popular months between July and October.

Modern day Nairobi is a place of skyscrapers and hustle and bustle, its elevated position of 1,800 metres above sea level gives it an air of cool. It can be a great place to acclimatise to Africa either before or after venturing on a safari of Kenya’s wildlife and beaches. The Karen Blixen Museum is often a point of interest and a well-run homage to the author of ‘Out of Africa’ and Karen herself lived here between 1914 and 1931. The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife’s Giraffe Centre offers yet more wildlife appeal and was established to protect the Rothschild Giraffes and to educate people on the conservation of these popular animals.

Kenya’s capital city in the central highlands has rapidly evolved from an undiscovered and unpopulated swampland, at the turn of the 20th Century, to a sprawling metropolis that is one of Africa’s largest and best known. When railway workers set up a camp here in 1899 it was named ‘Mile 327’, whilst the local Maasai had called it Ewaso Nai’beri or ‘place of cold water’.

Split into two parks covering the East and West, the combined area of Tsavo National Park represents one of Africa’s most vast tracts of wilderness and at a gargantuan 21,000 square kilometres is Kenya’s biggest national park. Such a large area is inevitably characterised by huge contrasts in its topography, with soaring volcanic hills, open savannah plains, rolling grasslands and shrub-land offering a vast and rugged area of exploration, but surprisingly this is not a place to come and search for the ‘Big Five’, nor savour the thrill of an active Kenyan safari. It is somewhere you can enjoy seeing wildlife in its most pure and unhurried, and in relative solitude.