Top 5 East African National Parks / Reserves!

21 August 2015

It’s all about wildlife! Here are our ‘Top 5’ Wildlife Destinations in Eastern Africa. Stay tuned for the next 5 destinations in Southern Africa next month to finish off your ‘Top game viewing’ destination experience on our routes and some of the tours you can do to get there…

#1 Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti National Park is one of the best-known and talked about wildlife sanctuaries in the world. The name ‘Serengeti’ comes from the Maasai language and means an ‘extended place’. The extraordinary National Park covers an area of 12,950 square kilometres. The Serengeti ecosystem, which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Grumeti Game Reserve, the Maswa Game Reserve, the Maasai Mara Game reserve (in Kenya) and numerous concession areas, is roughly the size of Sicily. It lies between the shores of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift Valley to the east.

What about the wildlife?

With more than 2 million wildebeest, half a million Thomson’s gazelle, and a quarter of a million zebra, it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. It also houses a huge population of large mammals, including giraffes, leopard, baboons, gazelles, elephants, hippos, and, of course, the famous lions sitting on the rock koppies (granite boulders/rocks). You’ll also come across more than 500 species of birds and hundreds of species of reptiles. Whilst it is fantastic to see one or two animals at a time, nothing beats seeing them in large herds. The migration hosts a voyage of more than a million wildebeest, zebra, and other hoofed animals which is certainly the largest wildlife spectacle on earth.

Visit the Serengeti on our ‘Top’ Overland Safaris:

13- days Kenya & Tanzania Adventure
18 days – Kenya and Tanzania
12 days – East Africa

#2 Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Conservation area in Tanzania includes the world’s largest inactive intact crater (after an explosion approx 2- 3 billion year ago) which acts as a natural enclosure. This small 260 km² and 600 m deep crater, makes this one of the few places in Africa where you can see the entire Big Five in the course of a single game drive. What’s also unique about this amazing place, the Masai still live within the conservation area, and it is common to see then wondering the roads. It’s also home to Olduvai Gorge where some of man’s earliest remains have been found and a geological site.

What about the wildlife?

This amazing intact caldera contains a population of over 25,000 large animals including 26 black rhinoceros. There are approximately 7,000 wildebeests, 4,000 zebras, 3,000 eland and 3,000 Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles. The crater also has the densest known population of lions, numbering around the 60 mark. Higher up, in the rainforests of the crater rim, are leopards, about 30 large elephants, mountain reedbuck and more than 4,000 buffalo’s, spotted hyenas, jackals, rare wild dogs, cheetahs, and other felines.

Visit this magical place of Ngorongoro Crater on any of these amazing safaris:

21 days – East African Explorer
26 days – Simba Sounds
5 days – Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater

#3 Masai Mara

The Masai Mara is also known as one of Africa’s greatest wildlife Reserves coming very close or equaling the famous Serengeti/Ngorongoro Crater, is situated southwest of Kenya and a mere 270km from the capital Nairobi. The park itself is relatively small yet it hosts an amazing concentration of wildlife. The terrain of the reserve is primarily grassland and riverine forest with distinctive acacia trees. The Masai people, well known for their custom dress sense also live in the areas making this without a doubt one of Africa’s most famous safari destinations.
What about the wildlife?

The Masai Mara ecosystem holds one of the highest lion densities in world and this is where over 2 million wildebeest, zebra and Thompson’s gazelle migrate annually. It hosts over 95 species of mammals and 570 recorded species of birds. You are almost guaranteed to see the Big 5. Lions abound throughout the park as do leopards, cheetah, hyenas, giraffe, impala, wildebeest, topi, baboons, warthogs, buffalo, zebra, elephants, and of course hippos and crocodiles in the Mara River – allowing a spectacle feeding opportunity when the animals migrate.

Exhilarating game drives in the famous Masai Mara on these safaris:

21 days – East African Explorer
26 days – Simba Sounds
13- days Kenya & Tanzania Adventure

#4 Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru National Park lies in Central Kenya, 140km north-west of Nairobi, in Nakuru district of the Rift Valley Province. It is one of Kenya’s two Premium Parks, and is a bird lover’s paradise. The ecosystem comprises of a shallow strongly alkaline lake set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland. The landscape includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest.
What about the wildlife?

Birds: Up to 1.5 million flamingos plus 450 other species of birds. Fauna includes Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, the rare long-eared leaf-nosed bat, colobus monkey, rock hyrax, hippo, leopard, lion, rhino, waterbuck, impala, gazelle, striped hyena, bat-eared fox, wild cat, reedbuck and golden cat. Restocked mammals include the lion, black and white rhino and the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe. This stunning park is truly a bird lover’s paradise!

Visit Lake Nakuru National Park on any of these safaris:

18 days –  Kenya and Tanzania
7 days – A week in Kenya 
12 days – East Africa

#5 Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is located in western Uganda, spanning the districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Bushenyi and Rukungiri. Its location is approximately 376 kilometres (234 mi), by road, southwest of Kampala, Uganda’s capital and largest. Not only is it famous for its tree climbing lions, The park is also famous for its volcanic features, comprising volcanic cones and deep craters, many with crater lakes such as Lake Katwe, from which salt is extracted.
What about the wildlife?

QENP is known for its wildlife, including hippo’s, elephants, leopards, lions and chimpanzees. It is now home to 95 species of mammal and over 500 species of birds. The area around Ishasha in Rukungiri District is famous for its tree-climbing lions, whose males sport black manes, a feature unique to the lions in this area.

Visit Queen Elizabeth National Park on these safaris:

24 days – A Taste of Africa
51 days – The Big 6
13 days – Gorillas and Game Parks