Yala National Park covers nearly a thousand square kilometres of dry forest, lagoon and open plain running down to the sea. Block One, the section open to visitors, holds a leopard density unmatched anywhere in the world.
You also come for elephants, sloth bears, crocodiles the length of a car, and a bird list that runs past two hundred species before you have finished breakfast.
We run the first game drive of the day, entering at gate-open, with guides who have worked these tracks for a decade or more. That is the difference between seeing a leopard and hearing about one.