Lake Nakuru National Park

In the vastness of the Great Rift Valley, on Kenya's western side, lies a vast, shimmering soda lake. The park in which this body of salt water exists, and from whom it takes its name, is Lake Nakuru National Park. Nakuru, though rather small in size, is amazingly rich in wildlife, bird life, and landscape - a virtual feast for the senses. There are also forests of yellow-fever acacia trees, and an immense euphorbia forest (the only of its kind in the world). In these many habitats exists a number of species including zebras, warthogs, leopards, lions, baboons, and waterbucks.

The park is also home to large herds of impalas and buffaloes. The birdlife here is equally impressive with huge flocks of flamingos (both lesser and greater), great white pelicans, and a variety of other exquisite shorebirds.

Nakuru also boasts a couple of rare species who have become great success stories. The elegant Rothschild's giraffes, whose numbers plummeted into the double digits in the recent past, are thriving here and can be seen in strengthening

Masai Mara National Park
The Masai Mara is Kenya's most popular game park, and with good reason. This park is the northern extension to the world famous Serengeti Plains, and its concentration of wildlife is unrivalled. The Mara is 320-sqkm of open grassland dotted with flat-topped acacia trees in the southwest corner of the country, bordering Tanzania. The outer edges of the park are home to the semi-nomadic Maasai Tribe, while the interior is left to the animals. All members of the big five are present here, which includes elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, leopards, and lions (whose prides are some of the largest in Kenya). Masai giraffes, baboons, warthogs, zebras, impalas, and Thompson's and Grant's gazelles are all found in huge numbers. Topis, hartebeests, hyenas, and jackals are also common. Cheetahs are doing exceptionally well here and are not difficult to spot. At the river large pods of hippos coexist with enormous crocodiles. Birds are also prolific, especially those in the raptor family.

Aside from the massive amounts of wildlife, the main attraction in the Masai Mara still remains the annual wildebeest migration. In July and August tourists arrive from all corners of the globe to observe the spectacle of some one million of these ungainly creatures as they make their dramatic crossings at the Mara River.

Samburu Game Reserve
Driving North towards the colourful, Islamic town of Isiolo, where the tarmac ends and the dirt road begins, a new and seemingly undisturbed world awaits. This world is known as the Samburu Game Reserve and it is a jewel to discover.

This reserve is rich in both culture and wildlife, and is far less travelled than the southern parks and reserves. The climate is hot and arid and the landscape is scrub desert broken occasionally by rugged hills. Samburu's lifeline is a large, permanent river known as the Ewaso Nyiro, whose banks are dotted with graceful doum palms. This lifeline helps support a variety of game including elephants, buffaloes, leopards, dik-diks, gerenuks, and crocodiles. It also boasts many endemic species such as the Reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, and Beisa oryx. Secretary birds, kori bustards, raptors, and a variety of hornbills are but a small sample of the birds that can be seen here as well.

The indigenous Samburu people are also an integral part of this region. They are nomadic pastoralists, largely untouched by Western society, who still choose to live a centuries-old traditional lifestyle. To witness them herding their camels across a dusty terrain, littered with brick red termite mounds, under a blazing sun, is to step back in time to a simpler world. This is possibly the best way to sum up all that Samburu embodies - a land in modern times, still left in the past to a simpler world.

Amboseli National Park
In southern Kenya, on the Tanzanian boarder, looms a massive 19,342 foot extinct volcano called Mount Kilimanjaro, and in its shadow lies a land of extremes. This land is known as Amboseli National Park and it is situated directly in the heart of Maasailand.

Amboseli is the second most popular park in Kenya, next to the Masai Mara. It has become famous for two things one being Mount Kilimanjaro of course, and the other being the large herds of elephants that roam the park's boundaries. These magnificent beasts can be seen the way they were meant to be seen, thanks to the diligent efforts of park officials and research teams who devote their lives to learning about and preserving these gentle giants.

Although elephants are the main draw to Amboseli, the traveller will not be disappointed with the other inhabitants of the park. Lions, whose numbers were severely reduced less than a decade ago, have rebounded and are again thriving here.

Masai giraffes, ostriches, zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, hyenas, baboons, and buffaloes all exists in large numbers. With luck the tiny dik-dik, gerenuk, or cheetah may also make an appearance.

This truly is a land of extremes - and in this dry, dusty environment nothing is as it seems - where sunsets and sunrises become hypnotically surreal and around every corner something new emerges. Inhospitable desert gives way to lush green oasis, oasis to thick forest, forest to dead, craggy trees – and throughout, life flourishes playing out its daily drama under the watchful eye of Amboseli's guardian mountain.