A day around Nairobi seeing the sights
Setting out at 9am the first stop was a ride to the Sheldrick Game Farm to see the orphaned and rescued elephants. This refuge was set up by a women many years ago and is set up to take any orphaned elephants. Abandoned by mothers, left alone after the death of the mother and any other distressed elephants.
Arriving at the refuge at 10am we hung around until 11am. We had been told that that we could get in earlier but waited patiently until 11am. The guide told us that he had never seen as many people as we did today. But it was his first visit since Covid. Finally filing in we waited for 
the elephants to emerge. But first we were treated to the sight of an eleven month old baby Rhino. 
This was the warmup to the first show – a feeding of about ten babies under two years old. The babies are fed baby formula and need help for the first few months. 
One attractive sight was the way the older elephants held their own bottles. These animals are ready to be released back into the wild at about three years old. They did not tell us the success rate but it must be pretty high to keep on doing it. The show lasted about an hour and then we were on our way to a local Artisans Market where Michelle wanted look for elephant carvings.
This place also was a coffee shop where those of us who were shopped out sat down for a brew of tea and a snack – it was pushing lunch time already.
Next stop was the Giraffe Centre, a Government enterprise combining tourism with conservation and education. The highlight of this place was the “feeding of the Giraffes. Each of us was given a little bowl of pellets and seeds and instructions not to get too close to the animals – they head butt for attention and also to place the feed on the tongue. This tongue can extend about six inches and devour anything in sight. Much fun was had by all 
and all of us were mightily impressed by being so close to this large animal.
Next stop – off to the Centre for the reclamation of local women. Set up by a Canadian years ago it was a project to help the Masai women who had been driven away from their cattle and nomadic life by drought and lately Covid they are employed making ceramic jewellery and leather goods. All the goods were of an excellent quality but priced too high for most of us – thank you Michelle for buying – we did not have to.
It was about 4.30 pm and most of us were whacked out and so we decided to skip the next visit, which was to be the Cultural Centre and the Masai villagers. We figured being in the Masai Mara National Park for the next four days we will be seeing plenty of Masai in our travels.
The last stop was to a large Mall and the SafariCom booth to pick up a couple of SIM cards for the next stage. When you buy SIM cards outside of Canada you quickly realise just how much we are being ripped off by the Telcoms. A card containing 2GB, 100 mins and 400 texts costs 500 Kenyan shillings – about $5cdn!
Back to the hotel in the rush hour to pack up for the drive to the interior and the start of the Safari.