The reserve, gazetted in 1961, is located west of the Rift Valley and is a natural extension of the Serengeti plains, in Tanzania. The Mara river, the reserve's backbone, traverses north to south heading for its westbound way unto lake Victoria, through the Tanzanian park. This course is the natural barrier crossed every year by the large migratory herds of wildebeests and zebras which march across the two parks. As explained below, more than one million wildebeests and 200,000 zebras move in a quest for the best pastures, finding along the way the crocodile-crowded river. When the herds ford the stream, many animals die flattened or drowned and leave their bones by the Mara banks. From July to October, Masai Mara is at its peak, with the seasonal visitors populating the vast grasslands.

Masai Mara's location and altitude, above 1,500 m, yield a climate which is milder and damper than in other regions. The grassy landscape and the nutrient wealth for the great herds are mantained by the abundant rains, which here last from November through June, as a fusion of the two rain seasons (long and short) typical in other Kenya areas. Night storms are frequent. In the hills and plains, grasslands are scattered with acacia woods and bush. The riverbanks of the Mara and of the multiple tributary streams are bordered by dense riverine forests with a good chance to find some of the reserve's bird species.

Since it is protected as a reserve and not as a national park, Masai Mara is not managed by Kenya Wildlife Service but by the local authorities, namely District Councils. The problem appears with the administrative divisions, defined by the Mara river. The eastern sector belongs to Narok District, whereas the western side lies in Transmara District. This detail, apparently irrelevant, is actually something to bear in mind: in theory, the fees paid at the gate cater for visiting the sector under the jurisdiction of the district through which the visitor has accessed. In practice, this condition is usually overlooked, but just in case you'd better leave the park through the same district you entered.

And in this wildlife webwork, where do the Maasai fit? The nomad pastoral tribe, formerly feared because of their warrior attitude, inhabits these lands from old. When in 1911 chief Lenana signed an agreement with the colonial government, he accepted selling the Maasai's territories and moving southward, for the sake of Nairobi's urban development. But the Masai Mara region had already been deserted over the 19th century, when epidemics and tribal warfare decimated the Maasai people and drove them to a decline which they are still expecting to recover from. Thus, an ancient Maasai prophecy which forecasted the arrival of the foreigners also foresaw a future that would bring back the old splendour days.

The truth is that the Maasai struggle between their classical conservationism and the temptation to join the files of industrial revolution seeking a more buoyant life. Their tendency to take a grip on tradition has granted them sympathy and admiration from tourists longing for picturesque scenes, but also rejection from the more progressive Kenyans, who believe that a nomad pastoral tribe in the 21st century's global economy is condemned to poverty. Today, many Maasai customs are restricted by law, such as lion hunting, while others like traditional nurturing on blood and milk fall into oblivion little by little. Meanwhile, tourists expect to find at the same time the Orzowei's Maasai and a safe and peaceful country, devoid of poaching, with no cattle in the reserves and without muggers. An impossible combination, save obliging the Maasai to become something similar to thematic parks' employees, youngsters wearing jeans and eating hamburgers that at night dress up in their parents' attires to perform their tribal millenary dances. After all, some of it can be found today in the pierced ears of many lodges' waiters and cooks.

May these latter iconoclast paragraphs be like one of those outdated spears we could see in that old Martin and Osa Johnson's movie, "Simba" (1928), where a group of Maasai moran chased a lion. In this case, I throw my spear against the monster of standardisation imposed from the Western World, and for the defense of a better future for all the Maasai, which may allow them to freely choose their own destiny away from the give and take they are continuously suffering.