Experience the best of Narok

Narok stands at about 1,800 metres on the high plateau west of the Rift Valley, the main town of Narok County in the land of the Maasai. It is a busy market town of shops, petrol stations and stalls, where Maasai in red shuka cloth shop beside farmers from the surrounding wheat and maize fields. The forested Mau escarpment rises to the north.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve lies some 100 kilometres to the south-west, a vast grassland of acacia and rivers with lion, elephant, giraffe and, between about July and October, the wildebeest herds that cross the Mara River. The road from Nairobi crosses the Great Rift Valley, with a viewpoint on the escarpment above the valley floor, before it climbs to Narok, and Lake Naivasha and Hell's Gate lie to the north-east.

Nyama choma, goat or beef roasted over charcoal and eaten with ugali and a chopped tomato and onion relish called kachumbari, is the favourite meal at roadside grills. Sukuma wiki, a dish of braised greens, and milky sweet tea are everyday fare. The highland air is cool at night, the long rains fall in April and May, and the driest months are July to October.