We've adopted an African baby!

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We are woken at 6:25am by the night butler with a juice for Tim and Hot Chocolate for me to drink while we wait for the giraffes to wake up.

MORNING VISITORS

We have a little bucket of giraffe food to feed them if they come by. So we open all our windows (even though it’s cold), and then it happens - my hot chocolate is sitting on the window sill as I open the window the locking arm pushes it off and onto the bed! Only about an inch came out but it seemed to go a long way! So we will now be known as the laundry couple!

Then we see them coming through the trees, we ended up counting 8 of the resident 10 giraffes, slowly, slowly some make their way to the house. Finally we have one at our window! So there we are, sitting on our bed feeding a giraffe through our bedroom window, we cannot believe this is really happening! And then it gets even better - a younger giraffe comes up, too small to actually reach our window so we have to drop food into her mouth, absolutely awesome!

Eventually they move away so we go down for breaky, and that is another experience! If you look at their website they show people eating breakfast, sitting by large open picture windows with a giraffe poking its head in - well that is EXACTLY what it was like!!!!!!!! We could have stayed there all day; it was the best way to start a day. Again, eventually they moved away, they are able to come and go where they please which is lovely.

Today has turned into a wet wintery day so a nice day for not doing much!

There is a Giraffe Information Centre next door that has an access gate to our gardens. We are given enormous umbrellas, these are not only for the rain but to shoo anything away that comes towards us, then we are escorted over and handed over to a guide. He goes through all the different giraffe sub species (I always thought a giraffe was a giraffe…) and he also shows us a tibia bone from a grown giraffe, apart from being really heavy (they don’t have a soft centre like our bones, they are just solid bone) it is huge and comes up to Tim’s waist.

There is also a verandah that is raised to the same level as giraffe to we are able to see eye to eye. This is where we get to again feed the giraffes (we are feeding one called Daisy) and we can get a giraffe kiss. So we put the longest pellet between our lips and pucker up! She is a sloppy kisser and after Tim makes me do it 5 times to get a good shot I’m covered in giraffe goozy! But paybacks can be cruel, because then it was Tim’s turn to pucker up….

There is a café and souvenir shop there but we just hit the souvenir shop and then get the guide to walk us back home.

There is lunch waiting for us in the same room we had breakfast, again it’s 3 course and delicious. The puppy comes racing into the dining room and rushed over to say hello to everyone then comes and sits next to our table. Then the butler walks into the room and she starts racing out the door with him chasing her. There are now muddy paw prints all over the floor; she didn’t pick the best day to do it.

Giles arranged for a lady to come by and give us a massage each, but only one can be done at time. So Tim goes first as I’m so stuffed full after lunch I wouldn’t be able to waddle myself up the stairs to our room!

The plan was for me to have some quiet time while Tim was busy with his massage to do journal, postcards etc in the sitting room. But then the Australian couple comes back and as said earlier she’s very friendly and is very good for a chat, so that’s what happens, suddenly Tim’s hour is up and it’s my turn. The massage is great and my legs really need it, I’m still sore from the gorilla trek! The girl who did it was engaged and was telling me that because of tradition, she can’t get married until her older sisters are. And there is a shortage of good men in Kenya!

THE ORPHANGE

Another reason for coming to Nairobi was to go to the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. She started this in memory of her husband. They rescue orphaned and abandoned baby elephants and rhino, rehabilitate them if possible and then release them back into the wild.

They have a blind adult rhino that it’s mother rejected as a baby and a couple of others as well. They also have warthogs there and I finally get to pat one! Warthog heaven!

Usually you can only go between 11am and 12pm but if you adopt one you can go in the evening when the babies get put to bed. As this was our intention we go arrive there at 5pm, just in time to see the tiniest little baby rhino I’ve ever seen waddle past to its stable and go to bed. It is given a bottle of milk and then tucks itself up under its mattress.

Then we see all the baby elephants come past with their baby blankets on and go to their respective stable. One walks past and farts and it’s the worst smelling thing I have ever smelt, I’d hate to see what an adult would be like!

We walk around to see all the babies and then get to choose one to adopt. The money you pay doesn’t just go towards that one elephant but goes into the community pot, but the one you choose is the one you get updated on as long as remain up to date with paying. Its $50 USD per year and it costs $900 USD per month to care for one elephant. They are given round the clock care, to the point that a carer sleeps in the stable with each elephant to feed it every 3 hours when the baby wakes them up! The elephant never has the same carer 2 days in a row so that there is no attachment made.

We decide on a 5 month old baby called Sities as she was friendliest and allowed us to pat her and she grabs our fingers with her trunk. No-one knows what happened to her mother as she wandered into a Rangers cottage all alone. She was born in January 2010. So now we are the proud parents of our African baby!

We go back to the lodge in time for a shower before tea, the butler takes our shoes for a clean, but they are pretty bad so Tim still has to give them an extra scrub.

I spend my spare time still sorting out the Credit Card mess, I’ll be glad when it’s all over if only to get my spare time back, sadly this is partly the reason why my blog has fallen behind. Finally the bank has emailed me the documents to complete (they seem to not realise that I didn’t bring my printer and fax on holiday with me, our bags were already too heavy) and Giles is kind enough to print them off for me and then scan them so I can email them back to the bank. Hopefully in another 2 weeks they will have fixed it up and given us our money back…

Time to pack up and get ready for our 7am pick up - off to Tanzania tomorrow!!

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