Intrepid explorers Roland and Zoe Purcell discovered the vast wilderness of Katavi in the 1980s when they were traveling around east Africa looking for the meaning of life. They had already found it on a white beach on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where they created the barefoot fantasy chimpanzee camp of Greystoke Mahale.

One day, when flying low over a stretch of wilderness that went as far as the eye could see, they spotted a seemingly endless herd of buffalo and landed their plane nearby. They set up camp for the night on the edge of the great Chada plain and from here they ventured out into this unknown landscape.

As they sat and studied their surroundings, they realised they had stumbled on a hidden paradise of game: hippos in their hundreds, not just in the rivers, but grazing on the banks in herds. The crocodiles were more circumspect, but so numerous that they couldn't easily hide And ranging across the open spaces were the largest herds of wild cape buffalo they had ever seen, shadowed by lion, leopard and hyena.