Maasai Mara National Reserve

Altitude: 1,500-2,170 meters above sea level.

Area: 1, 672 sq km.

Location: Narok County.

Distance from Nairobi: 270 km270 kilometers from Nairobi, and takes about 4 to 5 hours by road. There are scheduled flights, twice daily from Wilson Airport Nairobi, which take about 40 - 45 minutes.

Accommodation: Mara Sentrim Camp, Mara Sopa Lodge, Ilkeliani Camp, Siana Springs Tented Camp, Mara Sarova Tented Camp, Keekorok Lodge, Mara Simba Lodge, Fig Tree Camp, Tipilikwani Camp, Mara Leisure Camp, Mara Serena Lodge, Governor's Camp.

Little Governor's Camp – “High End” Sanctuary Olonana Camp – “High End” Cottars Camp – “High End”, Saruni Camp – “High End”, Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp, Bateleur Camp – “High End”, Mpata Safari Club, Mara Base Camp, Mara Ngenche Camp – “High End”, Fairmont Mara Safari Club, Sala's Camp, Mara Rianta Exploreans.

Activities: Game viewing, Camping, Viewing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Bird watching, Photography.

Maasai Mara “the jewel in Kenya’s crown”

For many people Maasai Mara is incomparably the most breathtaking of all country’s game reserves, perhaps of all Africa.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve also known as The Mara by the locals is a huge game reserve in Narok County, extension of Tanzania’s National Park. Maasai Mara is named in respect & honour of the Maasai people (the ancestral inhabitants of the area) and their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara," which is Maa (Maasai language) for "spotted," an apt description for the circles of trees, scrub, savanna, and cloud shadows that mark the area.

Although often described as the greatest of nature’s stages, the mara adds up to less than four percent of the whole Serengeti ecosystem. In yester years when the annual wildebeest migration was at its peak, the reserve held almost 2.5 million large herbivores together with smaller species – 1.4 million wildebeest, 550,00 gazelles, 200,000 Zebra, 62,000 buffalo, 64,100 impala, 61,200 topi, 7,500 hartebeest, 7,100 giraffe, 3,000 eland and 4,000 elephant – plus uncounted antelope such as dik-dik, duiker, steenbok, Rhino, warthog & bushpig. Besides there were the big cats – lion, leopard & cheetah.

All this creatures’ flock into the mara open grasslands for three to four months during the Great Migration from July to October.

Maasai Mara is only a fraction of the greater mara ecosystem, which includes several group ranches namely Koiyaki, Olkinyei, Siana, Lamek, Ol Chorro Oirowua, Oloirien, Kerinkani, Ol Derkesi, Naikara, Maji moto and kimintet.