Masai Mara in 6 days

Herds from the Serengeti mass on the banks, sometimes for hours, then plunge into the current within seconds once one animal jumps.

The reserve's western third, run since 2001 by the Mara Conservancy, with better-kept tracks, far fewer vehicles and stricter anti-poaching patrols.

An hour aloft from before dawn, low over the acacias then higher, showing the shape of the herds and the trails through the grass.

A spring-fed wetland in the north that never dries out, drawing elephants, buffalo and a lion pride filmed by camera crews since the 1990s.

The wall along the western side of the Mara Triangle, close to 300 metres above the plain, with leopards and hyenas in the valleys below.

Fig and yellow-barked acacia woodland along this Mara tributary is the reserve's best leopard habitat, where females raise cubs and cache prey in branches.

A small town at the reserve's eastern gate living from cattle, tourism and trade, with thorn enclosures, low mud houses and a livestock market.

A private reserve of about 200 km² created in 2010 on land leased from some five hundred Maasai owners, with capped tent numbers.