Justifiably Kenya's most famous wildlife area, the Masai Mara boasts 1,672 sq. km of unspoiled wilderness and holds the greatest and most diverse concentration of wildlife anywhere on the continent. The Mara is essentially the northern end of the great Serengeti, which stretches into Tanzania, and is undoubtedly the richest part of this extraordinary ecosystem. Throughout the year the Mara is a place of natural drama where the "Big Five" - elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard - roam, together with hundreds of others from the fastest animal on earth, the cheetah, to one of the most secretive, the bat-eared fox.

By any standards wildlife viewing in the Masai Mara is exceptional at any time of the year, and there is no time when a visit to this area will not be exceptional. However, after the spring rains, when the first flush of grass turns the Mara’s golden savannah green, the most mesmerizing wildlife spectacle on earth takes place, the great migration. This is the time when one and a half million wildebeest, accompanied by vast numbers of gazelles and zebra, make the long trek north from Tanzania to this corner of Kenya. Dwindling grazing and the drying waterholes force this all-consuming army of herbivores further and further north, enticed by distant rain clouds and rumbles of thunder. As they near the northern end of their migration and enter the Masai Mara the migrating herds find their range bisected by the Mara River, a gently meandering watercourse packed with pods of grunting hippos and more than the occasional 20-foot crocodile. In their relentless search for fresh pasture and the promise of rain, the herds are constantly being forced to cross this river, and they do so in a style all of their own, often in their thousands.

Being in the Mara during the migration is the most incredible wildlife bonanza. Clearly it is hard not to be impressed by the sheer volume of herbivores that trek across the border, but one must not forget that these visitors are joining a resident population of wild animals that is already one of the most impressive on earth. And naturally such a migration of food on the hoof draws with it many members of the upper food chain, both scavengers and predators alike, and they too join an already very healthy carnivore population. For the resident cats of the Masai Mara conditions are ideal for giving birth, and cubs thrive in this time of plenty.