Maasai Mara

When you think of Africa, the picture in your mind’s eye is quite likely a single acacia tree silhouetted on the savanna against a flame red horizon, inching towards infinity. That classic image is almost certainly from the Masai Mara. One of Kenya’s most famous safari destinations, the Masai Mara is a 583 square mile area of preserved wilderness in southwestern Kenya along the Tanzanian border made up of grassy plains and rolling hills, traversed by the Mara and Talek rivers. Its name derives from the Maasai people, ancestral inhabitants who migrated from the Nile Basin.

Other residents of the Mara, as it is called locally, include lion, cheetah, elephant, leopard, zebra, black rhino, hippo, and hundreds of bird species. Wildebeest, too, cross the Mara plains during the annual wildebeest migration in search of water in one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth. It is a jaw-dropping sight and one you won’t soon forget.