Masai Mara National Reserve:
The Masai Mara National Reserve is southwest of Nairobi and is about
1,800 square kilometers. ‘Mara’ means plains in the Masai tongue.
The Masai however are rather recent inhabitants, having moved to the area
about 200 years ago to escape a drought in the southern part of Ethiopia.
The park was founded in 1961 with an inner reserve where human development
is strictly limited. In the rest of the park, the Masai tribal people are allowed
to live, grazing their cattle and living in a “traditional” way.
More about that later!
It is a landscape of rolling hills and open savannahs.
One of the first impressions is how vast and open the park was.
We spent 2 full days there and barely had time to see 1/5 of it.
I thought it looked a lot like eastern Montana and Wyoming,
except for the thousands of big game animals like elephant, giraffe,
wildebeest, zebra etc. We saw only one male lion but there are more
lions here than any other park in Kenya. There are herds of Topi,
which are not common in other parts of Kenya. In the Mara River,
which runs through the park, there are even large herds of hippos!
The number of animals is really amazing, lines of wildebeest that
stretch to the horizon and herd after herd of zebra and antelope.
It’s also quite a different sensation to see them in their natural
state, largely unconcerned with people. Often the big predators like
lions just didn’t care at all, while the cheetahs seemed annoyed at
having their hunts disturbed. Birds also abound, some 53 birds of prey
and hundreds of different kinds in stunning colors and all sizes.
Traveling with my mom has enlightened us to the fun of bird watching.