Masai Mara Game Reserve
Altitude: 1,500 - 2,100 meters.
Airstrips: Ngerende Airstrips, Ol' Kiombo, Keekorok, Siana, Serena, Musiara,
Located in south-western Kenya, bordering Serengeti National Park, on the Tanzania
border. The Masai Mara is Kenya's finest wildlife sanctuary. Everything about this reserve is outstanding. The wildlife is abundant and the gentle rolling grassland ensures that animals are never out of sight. Birds too are prolific, including migrant birds and 57 species of birds of prey. Masai Mara National Game Reserve was opened in November 1974, and has a total area of 1,510 square Kilometers
This reserve is situated to the west of Nairobi, on Tanzania's northern border - it is the extension to the larger Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The Maasai Mara offers wonderful scenery and an abundance of big game. It is perhaps the only region left in
Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago.
It is a reserve of breathtaking vistas, panoramas of vast rolling plains, hills and woodland groves, well watered by the lovely Mara River which bisects the Reserve from north to south. The Mara is home to the largest population of lions in Kenya, these magnificent beasts spending most of the day sleeping in the shade of acacia trees. Vast herds of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest roam the plains. Impala, gazelle, giraffe and hartebeest grace the landscape, and the cautious topi may also be seen standing sentinel on earth mounds on constant look-out of predators.
The waters of the Mara River are home to crocodiles and pools of hippo, the acacia woodlands and riverine forests favoured by leopards and elephant, and the open savannah and dry bush areas play host to the plains' game and their attendant predators such as lion, cheetah, hyena and jackal.
It is probably the most visited reserve in Kenya. It offers breathtaking views and an extraordinary density of animals including the "big five" and a wide variety of plains game.
An impressive feature is the annual migration of Wildebeest, Zebra and gazelle from the plains of the south - western Serengeti that cross the political borders and rivers to reach the Mara's grasslands from late June, tracked by predators; lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and circled by vultures as their journey unfolds. The dramatic river crossings are a gruesome spectacle of survival of the fittest.
Apart from the annual migration, game viewing is excellent year round. The elephants, black rhino, buffalo, zebra, hartebeest, topi and the big cats roam the plains and the rivers are home to hippo and crocodiles. 452 species of birds, 53 of which are raptors.
Accommodation ranges from stone built lodges to luxury tented camps. The area to the north owned by the Maasai offers the same great game viewing, game walks and night game drives.
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