Kenya

Wildlife sightings in Kenya are plentiful year-round. In August and September, the Great Migration arrives in the south from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. Northern Kenya offers arid landscapes of astounding grandeur, inhabited by the colorful Samburu and Maasai people.

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Witness the Great Migration

The Maasai Mara National Reserve has a unique concentration of wildlife because, unlike much of the Serengeti to the south, it has a year-round supply of water. The Mara River never runs dry, and the grazing supports a huge resident population of herbivores and the predators that feed on them, as well as attracting the Great Migration from August to October.

Conserving the Maasai Mara

The Maasai Mara is not a national park, and the land still belongs to the Maasai. Visitors pay an entry fee, so there is an incentive to maximize their numbers, with dire environmental consequences. Fortunately, the outlook is not entirely bleak. Recently there has been a growth of “conservancies,” areas of land contiguous to the reserve that their owners have elected to devote to wildlife tourism. Combined, they are already nearly as extensive as the Maasai Mara itself. Conservancies can channel profits into schools and clinics and enforce responsible rules about the number of visitors.

Dramatic Views

Surveying the Maasai Mara from the top of the dramatic Siria Escarpment that defines its western boundary — a setting that devotees of the movie “Out of Africa” will recall as the place where the lions come to visit the grave of Denys Finch Hatton — it really can appear that the Ark has just opened its doors.

Mount Kenya Conservancy

Lewa Downs is a 100-square-mile conservancy that lies beneath snowcapped 17,057-foot Mount Kenya. In 1995, owner David Craig decided to abandon cattle ranching and dedicate the property to conservation. Today there are more than 150 rhinos, protected by 100 or more rangers equipped with planes, helicopters, drones and bloodhounds. Only three rhinos have so far been lost, although lions and elephants tend to be killed as soon as they leave the reserve. Guests at the Lewa camps and lodges can visit the rhino sanctuary and walk in the bush with baby rhinos and their handlers.