MAASAI MARA GAME RESERVE

The Mara Game Reserve, as it was originally known, an area of some 1812sq km, was established in 1961.  Its southern boundary is contiguous with Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, and it is divided into two sections. The inner reserve of 518sq has been developed on the lines of a National Park, no intrusion of human settlement being allowed, while the outer remains an undeveloped area where local Masai are permitted to pasture their cattle but which is otherwise undisturbed.

The Mara country is world famous for its vast assemblages of plains game together with their associated predators. 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.

The Reserve extends from the edge of the Loita Hills in the east to the Mara Triangle and the base of the Siria Escarpment in the west. The inner section, with its network of roads specially constructed for game watching, embraces the area around the Keekorok Lodge and westwards to the Mara River.

Everything is big in Mara. It is a country of breath-taking vistas, a panorama of vast rolling plains and rounded hills, of intermittent groves of acacia woodlands and dense thickets o scrub.  The Mara River and its tributaries, which are margined by luxuriant riverine forest, bisect the whole. And in every direction, there are the seemingly endless herds of game animals.

Mara possesses the largest population of lions to be found Kenya, although poisoning by farmers along the western border has reduced the number of Black-Maned Lions. It also boasts large herds of Topi and a small population of Roan Antelope; animals not found in many other Kenya National Parks or Reserve (although more commons and the traveler may sometimes be held up by ‘elephant on the road'

Among the great variety of large beast are Buffalo, Black Rhino (which may be seen more easily than at Amboseli or Tsavo), and Hippopotamus.  The hippo-viewing platform on the Mara River near the Mara Serena Lodge is probably the best place in Kenya for seeing hippo.  Other mammals include Leopard, Cheetah, Common Zebra, Coke's Hartebeest, White – Bearded Gnu, Oribi, Warthog, and Thomson's and Grant Gazelles.

The bird life of Mara is as profuse as its mammalian fauna. The redwing schalow's Turaco with its attenuated white – tipped crest is common along the numerous wooded watercourses, and in the more extensive riverine forests this also Ross' Turaco.  The Mara River is also the home of the great orange-buff Pel's Fishing Owl and of flocks of wary Crested Guinea-fowl.

On the open plains there are a variety of bustards including the large Jackson's Bustard and the black-bellied hartlaub's Bustard. The latter doing nuptial display soars high in their, then with rigid wings descends slowly to earth like a pricked balloon. Ground Hornbills are one of the most spectacular birds of the open plains and more easily seen in the Mara than elsewhere in Kenya.

Birds of prey are abundant, and now less than 53 different species have so far been recorded.  Secretary Birds are a common sight as they stalk sedately over the grasslands, and in the sky there are always vultures and that effortless flier the Bateleur.

Accommodation in Masai Mara National Reserve is at Keekorok Lodge, which is 265km from Nairobi on a road quite negotiable by saloon cars.  The route is via the Nairobi – Naivasha road, turning road, turning left at 56km;thence to Narok, 103km, and then 106km to the Lodge through some of the best game country in Kenya.  In the undeveloped part of the Reserve a limited number of camp sites are available, but the numbers of campers allowed into the reserve is strictly limited to avoid disturbance to the game, and there are tented camps near the eastern entrance and elsewhere.

In addition there is the Mara Serena Lodge, sited on high ground in the west of the Park overlooking the Mara River and two Luxury camps sited on the eastern bank of the Mara River.  These are the East African Wildlife Safari Camp near the old Mara Bridge and Governor's Camp some miles further downstream.