West Africa's last great savanna wilderness sits where Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso meet. The W-Arly-Pendjari complex, named after the three parks that make it up, covers more than ten thousand square kilometres of grassland, riverine forest and rocky ridges, and holds the largest population of elephants in West Africa, along with lions, cheetahs, hippos and buffalo. The W takes its name from the double bend of the Niger river that traces the shape of that letter, and the whole complex was listed by UNESCO in 1996 and extended later.
I have to be plain about the present. The area lies in a region affected by armed groups, kidnappings and attacks, with the parks in Burkina Faso and the north of Benin and Niger seeing repeated violence in recent years, and foreign governments advise against travel here. The roads are tracks, there is no reliable fuel for hundreds of kilometres, and a breakdown means a long wait. This is not a place to take a motorcycle on the basis of a map pin, and anyone interested should speak to park authorities and specialised operators about whether any visit is safe.
If conditions improve, the experience is a dry-season one. From December to April the vegetation dies back, the waterholes shrink and the animals come to the rivers, and the heat is fierce by March. The rains from June to October turn tracks to mud and close the parks. Tsetse flies, mosquitoes and dust come with the territory.
For now, the better way to enjoy the place is from a distance, through the wildlife and conservation groups that work there, and by supporting the rangers, many of whom have paid a high price for their work. One day, when the borders are quiet, a slow drive through the grassland at dawn, with mist over the river and elephants at the water's edge, will be among the best things you can do in Africa.