Covering an area of over 1,500 square km, the Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Africa. 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 includes 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 Maasai 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 herbivore s migrate from the Serengeti plains in Tanzania to fresh pastures in the north and then back south again in October.

Rainfall is bimodal with the main dry period from mid June to mid October and a shorter dry season during January and February. Long rains from March to June and the short rains from November to December. Rainfall is between 800-1200mm. Maximum daily temperatures lies between 26 degrees C and 30 degrees C.

Activities include:

Day & Night game viewing drives

Sundowners

Hot Air Balloon Safaris

Visits to Maasai cultural villages

Bush Meals