By Suzanne Vlamis

Maasai Mara National Reserve also known as the Masai Mara or the Mara is located in Kenya in eastern Africa and covers over 1,672 square kilometers. The Maasai Mara is not a national park but a designated game reserve because the Maasai tribal people have the right to graze their cattle on the land and also shoot animals if they are attacked. The reserve is an extension of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, comprising a small part of the Serengeti Plains ecosystem.  It is one of Kenya’s most unique areas because almost every animal species in relation to East Africa you can think of lives on this remote area of the continent with its red oat grasslands, thorn and Acacia trees. A memorable event is the mass migration of hundreds of thousands of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest when they travel in January on their way north from the Serengeti Plains and arrive by July into August in the Maasai Mara as the dry season begins. In October the herds begin to move south and the cycle begins all over again.  I refer to the Mara is one of our endangered Edens of Earth to protect and preserve.  I envision returning to Kenya in the future in the peak of the migration.

FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH — The aerial photograph of two Giraffes gracefully galloping across the sprawling Maasai Mara and sharing it with an African Elephant immediately after sunrise is my favorite image.  The firing up of a hot air balloon in pre-dawn’s darkness, and leaving the earth’s verdant surface amidst long shadows to silently float across landscape, defying gravity while suspended high above the earth as wildlife explores their African paradise in search of food, water and other wild animals is one of life’s unique moments.  The earth is moving beneath your feet, the passenger basket holding you glides, then speeds up to higher altitude as roaring flames fuel the balloon’s interior and a master pilot minds the wind steering us over one of our planet’s most spectacular terrains while its rare species awaken to a new day in Kenya’s African Eden of earth.

Ⓒ Suzanne Vlamis Photography