Meeting Ndii , the baby elephant (Vacation Day 1)
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 06/Oct/2009 16:14, 34 days ago
Day 1 - Tues Sep 15,2009Despite having crossed several time zones and arriving fairly late Monday night, I decided not to give my parents time to notice their jet lag, so we set out first thing Tuesday morning to visit the baby elephant which they foster at theDavid Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.Last November I visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trustand was so moved by what I saw that I sponsored, Ndii, a baby elephant on behalf of my dad, as part of his Christmas gift. Having received monthly updates on her for the past 10 months, my parents were very excited to see her in person!Almost 30 baby orphaned elephants are in the care of the David Sheldrick Trust– some were found abandoned and others injured and alone in parks throughout Kenya. Tourists are allowed to watch them being fed and playing from 11 am until noon each day. The babies are brought out in 3 separate groups for their feeding – the babies first, followed by the rambunctious toddlersand ending with those around 2 years old. Although the babies (as young as 2 weeks old) were cute, the toddlers were absolutely hilarious! They were full of beans, playing around in the water hole, then trying to help one another out and in some cases pushing their buddies back in! They were clearly having a blast and hadn’t quite figured out how to manoever their quickly growing bodies! As a sponsor, we were able to return in the evening to watch Ndii and the others get tucked in to bed in their little pens with their keepers.Fostering a baby elephant makes a wonderful birthday or Christmas present for that person who has it alland costs just US$50 peryear.After a light and relaxing lunch at theKaren Blixen Gardens(think“Out of Africa”), we visited theAFEW giraffe centre,which I also visited last year. We hand-fed the giraffes and those who were brave enough allowed Daisy (one of the biggest females) to take a food pellet right out of their mouth!We ended the day with a fancy meal at the Rusty Nail in Karen with my good friend Rosemary and, exhausted, everyone slept in the car most of the way home.