Kenya - The African Great Rift Valley - The Maasai Mara

"The National Reserve is situated in Rift Valley Province, Narok and Transmara Districts. The site adjoins the Serengeti National Park along the Kenya-Tanzania border, and is considered part of the same ecosystem. The National Reserve is Kenya's most-visited protected area, world famous for its high density of herbivores and predators, and the annual migrations of Wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus. The Maasai Mara lies in the Great Rift Valley (fault line) some 3,500 miles (5,600km) long from Ethiopia's Red Sea through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and into Mozambique. It is characterized by a wide valley and a towering escarpment in the hazy distance. Habitats in the Maasai Mara are varied, including open rolling grassland, riverine forest, Acacia woodland, swamps, non-deciduous thickets, boulder-strewn escarpments, and Acacia, Croton and Tarchonanthus scrub. The permanent Mara and Talek Rivers, and their tributaries, flow through the Reserve and approximately trisect it. There is a pronounced rainfall gradient from the drier east (with c. 800 mm rainfall per year) to the wetter west (with c. 1,200 mm per year)..." Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Postcard 1 

African wildlife wildebeest and zebra migration. Thanks to Mary of Kenya.

Postcard 2

The Great Migration of Wildebeest in Kenya. Thanks to Wairimu of Kenya.