Introducing the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
Experience at first hand the vast plains of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. This vast rolling plain sits beneath the Oloololo escarpment and forms part of the vast Serengeti plains in neighbouring Tanzania.
The Masai Mara is best explored between July and September, when the reserve’s resident lions lounge in the sun, apparently indifferent to tourists but keeping a close watch on the estimated two million wildebeest and zebra that arrive in the Mara from late June onwards during the spectacular annual migration.
Watch as exhausted animals try to avoid lions and cheetahs before plunging into the Mara River to swim past crocodiles and hippos. At any time of the year this is one of the best spots in Africa to see elephants, cheetahs, baboons, gazelles, giraffes, jackals, hyenas, water buffaloes, ostriches and several types of antelope.
Safari departures Year round
Duration 8 to 30 days
Accommodation Numerous luxury lodges and tented camps, many with airstrips
Best time to visit Masai Mara, Kenya
Year round, except April and May when the rains come. However, the best time is from July to September. Temperatures are consistent throughout the year with an average of 30˚C.
Location – Located 390km from Nairobi in the south-west corner of Kenya
Top attractions of a Masai Mara travel safari
Kenya is the quintessential place for safaris, home to game parks such as Amboseli, the Masai Mara, Samburu and Tsavo. One-tenth of all land in Kenya is designated as national parks and reserves. If you’re not afraid of heights, try a hot-air balloon over the reserve and don’t forget to visit the Masai tribespeople who live on the reserve’s fringes.
Lake Naivasha
Discover this pretty freshwater lake, known for its abundance of birdlife and spectacular views, just one hour’s drive from Nairobi. While there, visit Elsamere, the home of Joy and George Adamson and the real setting of Born Free, portraying the attempt to return the lioness, Elsa, to the wild. Elsamere is now a small museum, guest house and conservation centre.
Tsavo National Park
The largest park in Kenya, Tsavo covers 21,000km2. See buffaloes, rhinos, lions, antelopes, gazelles, giraffes and zebras as well as crocodiles and hippos at Mzima Springs in the north-west of the park.
Along the way, spot some of the 440 species of birds that inhabit the area.
Amboseli National Park Amboseli lies on the Tanzanian border 220km from Nairobi, overlooking snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain at 5895m.
Aberdare National Park
Aberdare lies amid a densely wooded mountain range rising to more than 4000m, adjacent to Mount Kenya. See elephants, rhinos, dik-dik, leopards, lions and monkeys, as well as rare forest antelopes such as the bongo.
At the park’s two lodges, ‘Treetops’ and ‘Ark’, watch animals from the comfort of platforms overlooking clearings, which are floodlit at night. Don’t miss Guru Falls, which drops over 300m.
Mount Kenya National Park
Hire a guide and climb to the summit of Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano and the second-highest mountain in Africa at 4986m. The ascent is through farmland, forest, open moorland, alpine vegetation, sheer rock and, at the summit, year-round snow fields. On the lower slopes, look out for black leopard and the black and white colobus monkey.
The Great Rift Valley
Explore a portion of this vast seismic scar, formed about 20 million years ago, which stretches from the Red Sea to the Drakensberg in South Africa, a distance of nearly 6000km. It is at its most dramatic in central Kenya at the Mau Escarpment, where walls 2000m high plunge into the flat-bottomed valley floor.
Lake Victoria
West of Mara, on the Ugandan border, lies Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the source of the fabled Nile River. For superb fishing and bird watching, visit any of the three islands of Rusinga, Mfangano and Takawiri, or head into the Kakamega Forest Reserve, Kenya’s last surviving patch of primeval rainforest and home to hundreds of species of birds, around 60 of which are found nowhere else in the country.
Nairobi
Stroll down wide tree-lined streets and through spacious parkland suburbs, browse American-style malls or traditional African markets for local handicrafts or watch displays of traditional dancing at the Bomas of Kenya, a short distance from the city centre.
Explore the Kenya National Museum to see some of the earliest human remains, discovered by the Leakeys at the prehistoric sites of Olduvai and Koobi For a, or head to the Karen Blixen Museum, which occupies the farmhouse made famous by the author’s book, Out of Africa. |