Area: 1,510 km²
Established: 1961
Address: Kenya
How to get there: The road distance from Nairobi to Masai Mara Game Reserve is about 225 kilometres (140 miles) to the nearest entry point. By road from Nairobi to the reserve takes about 6 hours, and this is to one of the nearest entry gates in the Mara. Flying to Masai Mara is much more convenient option, being only about an hour flight from Wilson Airport in Nairobi.
What to do there: Tours, Nature & Adventure, Sightseeing Tours, Nature & Panorama, Culture & History
Masai Mara National Park is spelled as Masai Mara and it is locally known as The Mara, which is a very large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named after the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated from one area to another area from the Nile Basin. The description of the area when we looked at from a far: “Mara” means “marked” in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees the landscape is being spotted.
Maasai Mara is one of the most famous and most important wildlife conservation and wilderness areas in Africa, world-renowned for its exceptional populations of lion, African leopard, cheetah and African bush elephant. It also hosts the Great Migration, and is being recorded as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and as one of the ten Wonders of the World.
The Greater Mara ecosystem involves all the areas known as the Maasai Mara National Reserve, the Mara Triangle, and several Maasai Conservancies, including Koiyaki, Lemek, OlChorroOirowua, Mara North, Olkinyei, Siana, Maji Moto, Naikara, OlDerkesi, Kerinkani, Oloirien, and Kimintet.It has a semi-arid climate with biannual rains and two distinct rainy seasons. Wildebeest, topi, zebra, and Thomson’s gazelle migrate into and occupy the Mara reserve, from the Serengeti plains to the south and Loita Plains in the rustic spreads on the north-east, from July to October or later. Herds of all three species are also resident of this reserve. All the animal members of the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, elephant, Cape buffalo, black and white rhinos) are found here all year round.
One third of the whole Maasai Mara in the western part is the larger reserve, The Mara Triangle has only two permanent lodges within its boundaries, namely the Mara Serena Lodge and Little Governors Camp and has well-maintained. Most lodges within the region charge higher rates during the Migratory season, although the Maasai Mara is home to productive wildlife year-round.
