Day 1: Giraffe Centre + Sheldrick Elephant Trust (Nairobi, Kenya) -

While our official safari tour doesn’t start until tomorrow, we’ve actually been looking forward to today’s adventures since before we booked our trip.

Instead of recovering from the 20+ hour travel day and adjusting to the 8-hour time difference, we 100% had to visit the Giraffe Centre and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Conveniently, we’re staying near both, in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi, named after Karen Blixin, of Out of Africa fame.

First up: the Giraffe Centre, a non-profit conservation centre aimed at preserving the Rothschild Giraffe, a subspecies of the giraffe found only in East Africa. When they launched in 1979, there were only 130 Rothschild giraffes left in the wild. Through the Giraffe Centre’s efforts, there are now 300 of them, breeding at various national parks across Kenya.

Visiting the Giraffe Centre is a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with the Rothschild giraffes. The best part? YOU GET TO FEED THEM and put pellets on their LITTLE BLUE TONGUES! It was incredible.

We met Buttercup and Salma and even got to see the newest baby who is only a few weeks old. We fell in love!

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Next up: The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – an orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program situated within the Nairobi National Park. They’ve been rescuing baby elephants for 45 years and have successfully raised more than 300 orphans. They produce some of the best content on the internet with daily stories, photos and videos on Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok and they run an incredible adoption program that allows people around the world to take part in their wonderful work.

We adopted Nyambeni back in September 2021 and as you can imagine, I’ve been impatiently waiting to meet her (and her fellow nursery mates) since then. Sheldrick is only open to the public for one hour per day and the 100 guest spots are sold out long in advance.

Nyambeni was rescued at 3 months of age after being found abandoned in a ditch. Born on February 1st, 2021, she thrives when she’s in the lead and is known for being very competitive and a little bit feisty…sound like anyone you know, lol?