We woke up and were entertained by the little monkeys across the parking lot. It helped to wake the kids up! We had breakfast at the hotel then were picked up by our driver and taken to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Center and Nursery. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was established about fifty years ago and functions as an elephant rescue and rehabilitation program, anti-poaching patrol, mobile veterinary service and habitat protector. They are best known for their Orphan Project which rescues dependent babies orphaned by poaching, human conflict or natural disasters. The babies are raised in the Nairobi Nursery and have twenty-four seven care by their human keepers. As they grow, they are given more independence and eventually re-introduced into the wild. I have followed the SWT for nearly three years on social media and am always captivated by the stories. It is heartwarming to know that many of the released female elephants bring their babies back to meet their keepers years later. We adopted one of the elephant orphans a couple years ago and have been receiving monthly updates on his progress. We were able to see Olomunyak and watch him receive his bottle! You can get reservations to visit the nursery for one hour to watch the orphans receive their mid-day milk and mud baths!
Monkeying around!
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Center! Our driver got us right up to the front of the line so we could get a good spot to watch the elephants.
I almost cried when I saw the keepers walking the animals over to the feeding area. You can see them through the trees.
The nursery currently has a young zebra and rhinoceros that were orphaned. They were brought into the center around the same time and have developed a friendship.
It was so fun to watch the elephants come in! They love their milk (formula)! They get fed every three hours, including during the night.
They also ate leaves the keepers had scattered around the area.
Some of the babies could hold their own bottles. They are given more and more independence and then transferred out of the nursery around age three to four. They then spend an additional eight to ten years at reintegration units, slowly mixing with wild herds.
This little one had only been adopted two weeks prior. She was still underweight and shy.
Bye bye elephants!
They sleep in these stables with blankets and their keepers.
After our visit to the elephant center, our driver took us to Giraffe Manor. This place books out a year or two in advance. Luckily, we booked this first when I started planning. Only two of the twelve rooms are big enough for families. This place was a dream come true.
The Giraffe Manor is a boutique hotel in Nairobi that has a resident herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes freely roaming on its grounds. It operates hand-in-hand with the Giraffe Center next door to run a breeding program to re-introduce the giraffes back into Kenyan national parks. We were immediately greeted by the staff and given scented washcloths to clean our hands, freshly made lemonade and cookies. We were given a run-down of what to expect during our stay. After our drinks, we were led on a tour of the grounds then taken to our room. The giraffes spend the day at the Giraffe Center being fed by tourists and return to the Manor in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for tea-time feeding. Giraffes spend sixteen to twenty hours a day eating and consume seventy-five pounds of food a day!
When we got to our room, there was a little basket full of toy gifts and activities for the kids.
Our family suite was sectioned into a living space, a main room and the kids room. We had an entire wing of the house with the dining room underneath our suite. This was the kids room.
The view from the room was beautiful!
We had our own private porch!
Our bed! This view is from the porch looking in. The bathroom was behind the divider wall.
Every detail was exquisite!
This was the living space. The door opened to the staircase leading down to the dining room.
This was the kids bathroom.
Some of their toys!
The were two notes for us on arrival. I had told Leah that this trip was for Alex's birthday and she apparently passed that message on to every place we stayed!
The dining room!
After we had seen our room, we went on to explore the Manor.
There was a gin station to make gin and tonics. They also had freshly made lemonade, tea and water.
This tree was over a hundred years old!
We stopped for coffee here. All drinks and meals were included.
I had the most delicious latte.
Harper was excited to play chess with this cute set.
There was a separate house with a pool and additional sitting and dining rooms. We walked over to explore.
They had fires going in the fireplaces to make the areas extra cozy.
We walked over to the garden to explore.
Time for lunch! The staff member assigned to our family was Katrina. She was our waitress, giraffe mediator and guide to the house. She was amazing and we loved her.
Ethan loved these napkin rings.
I loved these little spoons so much that I got some from the shop!
The food was not only delicious, but very healthy and beautifully plated.
There is a cat named Ginger that roams the grounds at Giraffe Manor. She knew we were cat people and spent a lot of time with us. She quickly earned several nicknames from us - Gingy, Gatito, Paka (kitten in Swahili).
The kids were given hot chocolate anytime the adults were served tea or coffee. They were obsessed with this.
How cute is this!?
After lunch, we went over for a swim.
We could see warthogs roaming around.
They are affectionately called Pumbas here. Pumba (also in Lion King) is a derivative from the Swahili word for stupid. As one of our guides said, Pumbas have a very short memory.
Alex and the kids got in the pool, but it was too cold for me. I sat at the edge and watched the giraffes start to mosey over from the Giraffe Center. Harper had to wear her ear plug and swim cap here too due to her ruptured tympanic membrane.
There was a hot tub inside!
There are giraffes in the distance!
After the swim, we went back to our room to change for afternoon tea with the giraffes. I could see one walking over to the tea area!
The staff know each giraffe by name! This large male is named Eddie. He is eighteen feet tall! He is friendly. All of the giraffes will eat from your hands, but some do not like to be pet.
This is Lily. She only likes the brown alfalfa pellets and purposely avoids the green ones. She is much smaller than Eddie.
I already forgot this one's name! I think it may have been Daisy. She can get easily annoyed.
Eddie was standing near our seats so we went back to feed him some more.
It doesn't get much better than this.
We had tea and treats in between feeding the giraffes.
After tea time, Ethan and I went to check out the tub. Harper and Alex went to play chess.
We loved these robes!
We went back to our table on the patio for dinner. The temperature had dropped but they had charcoal heaters to warm us. Every detail was amazing!
Ethan loved this pitcher.
My little heater!
Ginger also loved the heater. After our desserts, the entire staff came out with an additional cake and sang for Alex's birthday! It was so unexpected and sweet! It was too dark to take a picture, but I did get a video!
After dinner, Harper read her book in a lounge area.
They did our laundry during the day and left the folded clothes in these cute baskets in our room after dinner.
They turned down the beds while we were out. There were hot water bottles in the beds to warm them as nights are cold in Kenya in July/August!
Going to sleep at Giraffe Manor was like waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve!
