Masai Mara National Reserve

Set in the south-west of Kenya, near the border with Tanzania, the Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the best wildlife sites in the world. Its plains and acacia scrub are home to lions and cheetahs, baboons, zebras, spotted hyenas, waterbuck, Masai, Rothschild's and common giraffes, buffalo, white rhino, Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, dik dik, Coke's hartebeest, topi, impala and Roan antelope.

Elephant herds roam the bush, while the Mara River itself provides pools and wallows for hippos and cover for leopards and crocodiles. Black rhino are increasingly rare and difficult to spot.



More than 450 species of birds have been seen here, including crowned crane, flamingo, ostrich, pelican, hornbill, marabou stork, secretary bird and thousands of vultures that stalk the migrating herbivores, hoping to profit from a lion's leftovers.

Of course, , the Masai is best known as being the site of one of nature's greatest spectacles, the annual migration of 1,200,000 wildebeest, more than 350 thousand Thomson's gazelles and more than 190,000 zebra.

In May and June, these animals leave the neighbouring Serengeti and head north, beginning their return journey in October, following the fresh pasture that springs up after seasonal rains.

A visit to this vast rich landscape, full of spectacular wildlife is not an experience that anyone will easily forget. Accommodation ranges from stone built lodges to luxury tented camps. The area to the North owned by the Maasai offers great game-viewing, game walks and night games. Safari operators set up private camps for small groups seeking exclusive and traditional safaris out of the Reserve. In the Reserve are four tented camps and two lodges.