Introduction to Africa

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Visit to Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

What an excruciating "start" to the vacation!!! We left Chennai at 6:00 pm and landed inMumbai's International Airport around 9 pm only to be told that we would only be let in only 3 hours before our flight - which meant we had to wait for 3 hours. We finally left India around 3:30 am - 30 minutes late and landed in Nairobi around 7 am. We cleared immigration and customs and met our driver/guide George around 7:45 am - an hour later than scheduled. George was going to take us on our safari the next 5 days and he showed us our safari-ready van with its open roof. We exited the airport in this van and hit the road to Nairobi. The wildlife hit us right away. Adjacent to the airport in Nairobi is the Nairobi wildlife park.We spotted Zebras and Giraffes right away. Due to the lack of sleep because of the early morning flight and our fatigue with the travel in and around India, we were planning to skip our scheduled trip to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. But the Nairobi and African ambiance kicked us out of our stupor and we decided to stick to our original plan.

We met George at 10 am in the lobby of our comfortable Boulevard Hotel. The traffic was heavy at this time of the day and we reached the orphanage at 11 am. The orphanage is open from only 11-12noon. We were right on time as the main attraction, the baby elephants waltzed in. This was a herd of 8 calves that were all less than 2 years old. The cynosure of all eyes was the smallest one of the herd. The calves were fed with 2 jugs of milk/infant formula. They started to roll in the mud and play like dog pups (and sadly reminding me of my own Butch). The guide/ranger talked and explained to us the history behind each of the rescued calves. He explained how each of the calves were found, rescued and adopted by the David Sheldrick foundation (http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/). The elephant had an absolute ball and were having great fun playing wit each other.

After about 20 minutes, this group was led out only to be replaced by a herd of older elephant calves. These were bigger and ranged from 2 to 3 years in age. These were also fed the same 2 jugs of formula but some of them seemed to clamor for more!! And once again this herd started to play and fight with each other - it was impressive to watch these gorgeous beasts so close and with a bit of trepidation for all that stood between us and them was a wire. We were standing less than 2 feet away from some of the calves.

The rangers explained the re-introduction process for these elephants.He mentioned that they would be released 2-3 at a time into the wild. Most of the elephants in the orphanage were female and they already had a leader for the herd. They spent the rest of the day in the adjoining Nairobi National park. The elephants were led away close to 12 pm. We got to touch a few of the calves when they were led away.

Sheldrick also houses orphaned Rhinos. We saw one black Rhino in its enclosure. We walked around its enclosure and touched its thick hide. He was very docile and was not aggressive at all. We took a few snaps of him and then left for our hotel. It was quite an introduction to the wildlife we would find in the next 5 days. We had seen 2 of the big 5 on our first day and were looking forward to our safari.

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Photos

Elephant calves at sheldrick
Calves going in for a drink

Food!!!
Feeding time for the calves

Young'un
The youngest Calf that we saw

Fun n Frolic
After food we play

Black Rhino
THe Black Rhino at its enclosure