An African Safari vacation, or more specifically going on a Kenya Safari can take you to many different parts of Kenya, and to many absolutely delightful Parks and Reserves, where many thousands of excited visitors will have the opportunity to see and get near some wild animals that they have only ever seen before in a zoo or on television.

This article exists to inform you about the Great Rift Valley, and give you reasons to ensure it is on your itinerary when you next take an African Safari Vacation in Kenya.

The Great Rift Valley is really one of the great wonders of the world, and it can be seen as far north as the Middle East, and then this gigantic fault line goes down through Africa as far as Mozambique, a distance of around 5400 miles in length.

It is impossible to describe the sensation when you first see it in Kenya, or do justice to what it feels like when you approach the Great Rift Valley, and the ground just vanishes from under you, as this great Rift opens up, cutting Kenya neatly in half, separating East from West.

To give you some idea of the scale of the Great Rift Valley where hopefully you are going to choose to spend at least a part of your Africa Safari Vacation In some places the Rift is 60 miles wide, and its narrowest point it is 27 miles wide.

In the south the valley walls are sheer cliffs rising to over 6000 feet at Lake Naivasha.

There are three national reserves in the Rift Valley are all in the remote area north of Isiolo and they are the Samburu, Buffalo Spring and Shaba, which are accessible with only a little difficulty.

Something not to be missed are the Lakes area of the Great Rift Valley, and the descent to explore them in the floor of the Rift.

The first is the beautiful deep green Lake Naivasha, and the Lake Naivasha basin hold two small National Parks.

The first Park in the area is the Mount Longonot National Park which rises up to over two thousand seven hundred metres around a young volcano.

The next park is Hell’s Gate which is famous for natural Hot Geysers, and is relatively small at 68 square kilometres.

Going northwest you come next to Lake Nakaru and its world famous park made to protect the pink lesser flamingo.

This is followed by Lake Bogoria, and the reserve here is almost all lake which has huge interest to ornithologists.

Then finally we come to the tiny Lake Kamnarok Reserve  with a 4000 foot deep valley.

This brief description whilst not covering anything like all of the Great Rift Valley has hopefully at least given you a taste of what a Kenya Safari here could take in, and make you want to know more.

With a huge variety of landscapes, things to do and see, lodges, camps and of course wildlife the Great Rift Valley is a must for any Africa Safari Vacation based in Kenya.