Timing the Great Migration: A Planning Guide for Caucasus Travellers Heading to East Africa

By Safari News — Africa Calling Safaris, Partner desk, Nairobi · 02/10/2025

Updated 23 October 2026

The wildebeest migration is not a one-off event but a continuous clockwise circuit linking Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara, involving over two million wildebeest alongside roughly 200,000 zebra and 400,000 Thomson’s gazelle. The animals never truly arrive or depart; they simply pass through, which means success depends on matching travel dates to the herds’ position in the loop rather than booking a fixed destination.

The calendar runs in distinct phases. January–February brings calving season to the southern Serengeti’s Ndutu plains, where roughly 500,000 calves are born within six weeks, drawing cheetah, lion and hyena in large numbers and offering strong game viewing with far fewer visitors. March–May sees herds move north through the central Serengeti during the long rains, with Grumeti River crossings beginning around May–June. The most sought-after window, July to October, centres on the Mara River crossings in Kenya’s Masai Mara, where herds plunge through crocodile-infested water in scenes widely regarded as among the most dramatic in nature; the cycle closes in November–December as short rains push the herds south again.

Positioning matters as much as timing. Booking data from Africa Calling Safaris, drawn from 1,200 client reports across 12 seasons (2012–2024), shows travellers camped in the Mara Triangle were 2.3 times more likely to witness a crossing than those based east of the river. Crossings typically happen in the morning, so guides recommend being riverside by 6:30am, with a private vehicle essential since the wait can run to three hours for a crossing lasting fifteen to thirty minutes. Travellers flying from Europe or the Caucasus via Nairobi should allow for a connecting flight or long drive into the Mara, and plan at least three nights there to improve the odds.

Climate research published in the Journal of Animal Ecology (2020) notes a gradual northward shift in dry-season range, meaning the once-reliable October peak has become less predictable, while July and August remain the safest bet for crossing sightings.

Based on reporting by Safari News, the travel desk of Africa Calling Safaris (Nairobi), GTour’s partner for East Africa. Read the original there.

Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0