Safari to Mara Talek

a large illegal settlement has been established

Mara Talek is one of the main points of access into the Maasai Mara for overland traffic arriving from Nairobi.

The Talek Stream is a significant tributary of the Mara River, with its course forming the northern boundary of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The park can be entered at this point across Talek Bridge.

The gate is encircled to the north by a disgraceful rash of uncontrolled development, nothing short of a small town which has, incredibly, been allowed to develop here in the heart of the Mara ecosystem in recent years.

Either side of the bridge lies a range of camps and lodges, the majority of which cater to budget minibus safaris, fleets of which pour into the reserve from here.

Mara Talek is definitely not one of our favourite parts of the Mara. We very rarely, if ever, recommend including it in trips. In fact we even try to avoid driving through here when connecting other higher quality areas. If we had the option we would delete it from our memories, it’s so upsetting.

For some years we have been actively discouraging people from visiting this area in the hope that the authorities will eventually take responsibility for tidying this mess up and properly protecting what is otherwise one of the world’s greatest wildlife areas.

We tend to most often recommend camps in the prime Mara Confluence part of the main reserve and in the private conservancies of Mara North and Mara Olare Orok to the northeast.

When looking for accommodation in this part of the reserve we would more commonly look at the adjacent Mara Confluence area, where there is a good range of options.