The classic safari from July to September, the Mara provides one of nature's most dramatic spectacles, the annual migration of thousands and thousands of wildebeest and zebras, teeming from the south to cross the Mara river into the Masai Mara National Reserve. The stunning Savannah stretches on forever. In the vast landscape you can see Cheetah the fastest animal in the world, chasing Antelope and Gazelle. In the Mara River Hippos bathe, and on the banks, Crocodiles sun themselves. One of the world's very special places.
As East Africa's plains fade yellow after the summer's rains, an ancient signal is sent to millions of beast as one, the horizon blurring with the bodies at least 1.4 million wildebeest and 200 000 zebra, eland and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa's great predators. This is the migration - one of the most awe-inspiring sights on earth.
The migration has its origin on Tanzania's southern Serengeti plains, where great herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson's gazelle gather to graze on the rain-ripened grass in January. But by the end of May the depleted plains are unable to sustain them - and an ancient impulse commands them to move. Like iron filings being drawn by a magnet, the great herds sweep north towards the Masai-Mara plains. By July the herds have amassed along the swollen Mara River - their final barrier from the short, sweet grasses ahead.
With wild eyes, they plunge in to face the crocodiles which await them. Many who struggle through the deadly flotilla are drowned, or else weakened, falling prey to ambushing lions. This is the dramatic life-and-death struggle that travelers have come to see. Between June and October the herds total 1.4 million beasts in the Masai Mara and a dust cloud of movement and noise pervades the air. Here the green grass of the Mara-plains nourishes them - until the arrival of the November rains, calling them back south again. Back on the rain-sweetened Serengeti grasslands, the pregnant females give birth in spontaneous profusion. The circle of life is completed.
