MASAI MARA RESERVE

The Masai Mara Reserve is one of East Africa's best known game viewing areas and adjoins the Serengeti Park of Tanzania, a land of undulating hills and rolling grasslands supporting a huge animal population.

When a casual visitor is treated to the sight of Lions in prides, 
sometimes numbering as many as thirty beasts with a handsome black-maned male in dominance.  A Cheetah roaming the plains to run down its prey or a Leopard with its kill in the lower branches of the sausage tree.  In the MaraRiver there are hundreds of hippos and some crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks.

Elephant, Cape buffalo, giraffe, gazelles, topi antelope and during the months from July to September the wildebeest and zebra migrations overflow into the Masai Mara from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Accommodation varies from simple lodges to luxury camps and ranch homesteads.  Most lodges offer the opportunity to take a hot air balloon safari in the early mornings, every day of the year, weather permitting.

Covering an area of over 1,500 square km, the Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Kenya. The reserve is located in the Great Rift Valley in primarily open grassland. Wildlife tends to be most concentrated on the reserve’s western escarpment...

The swampy land provides more access to water and less access to tourists. The eastern end is closest to Nairobi and hence easier to access by tourists. The Masai Mara is regarded as the jewel of Kenya’s wildlife viewing areas. The annual wildebeests migration alone involves over 1.5 million animals arriving in July and departing in November.

There have been some 95 species of mammals, amphibians and reptiles and over 400 birds species recorded on the reserve. Nowhere in Africa is wildlife more abundant, and it is for this reason a visitor hardly misses to see the big five (buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino). Other game include hippopotami, cheetah, Grant’s gazelle, impala, topi, Coke’s hartebeest, giraffe, Roan antelope and the nocturnal bat-eared fox. However wildebeest are by far the dominant inhabitants of the Masai Mara.

Their numbers are estimated in the millions. The Great Migration starts in July each year when well over one million wildebeest along with large numbers of Thompson’s Gazelle, zebra and other herbivores migrate from the Serengeti plains in Tanzania to fresh pastures in the north and then back south again in October.

Masai Mara Attractions
Wildlife 95 species of mammals, amphibians and reptiles and over 400 birds species have been recorded including annual wildebeests migration involving over 1.5 million animals.

Getting to Masai Mara
Main roads are all weather. Game viewing trucks can only be used by four wheel drives during the rainy season. The main road from Mai mahiu to Narok is currently under construction.

Three airstrips serve the Mara:- Keekorok, Olkiombo, and Musiara all of them murramed.

Where to Stay: Accommodation options in Masai Mara
Maasai Mara has a range of accommodation to suit all budgets, tastes and interests. There are very basic campsites where you can pitch a tent and sleep under canvas in the wild.