12/16/2024 was a bitter-sweet day. It started with a visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant and Rhino Orphanage, which is within Nairobi National Park.
Elephants only eat their mother’s milk for the first two years. If for some reason the elephant becomes orphaned during this time, it cannot survive. Since 1977, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has been providing a haven for these elephants (and for rhinoceros orphans as well). They feed the elephants multiple times a day, but only one feeding is open to the public. As every one of these elephants will be introduced back into the wild, they do not want them to bond too heavily with humans in general (bonding with their their handlers is OK). The baby elephants are obviously well cared for and are happy.
Each of these elephants is between 2 and 5 years old. As elephants are very social creatures, the handlers sleep with the elephants and feed them during the night. Somebody asked how you get a job as a handler, and the answer was that they hire you based on qualifications and then fire you if more than 2 elephants decide that they don’t like you.
They introduced each elephant and told their story. If interested, they would be more than happy for you to adopt one of their elephants (using the link above).
They also have two rhinos, but their current health didn’t allow them to be seen (one still requires multiple surgeries).
The surprising part to me is that releasing an elephant back into the wild can take 3 to 5 years. Elephants need to be accepted into a herd, and herds are usually reserved for family. So every morning they will release the elephant. and every evening it will come back. Over time, the hope is that it will find a herd that will adopt them, but this process can take years.
While leaving, we had to step around this warthog blocking the path:
The drivers then took us to the airport, where 12 of us boarded a flight to Malindi, Kenya.
From there it was a short drive to the Hemmingways Hotel in Watamu. I honestly was not super excited for the beach, but it only took a few seconds for that to change. After checking in at the lobby…
You walk down this pathway…
And are met with this:
It was hard to not look forward to the next few days here!