Headed to Nairobi and Giraffe Manor
We said our goodbyes to the staff at Loisaba Lodge and hopped on the plane to Nairobi. I got to co-pilot once again. I was able to get some great photos of Nairobi from the air.
Our driver, John, picked us up at the airport and took us to Giraffe Manor. Along the way we made the plan to head to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage tomorrow around 11 and then go to my favorite Njuguna’s for some nayma choma. John started laughing when I said I wanted to go there for lunch and asked how I knew about it. I told him I had been there in January and had such a great time, I wanted to go back. He told me that it is a local place and in all his days of driving no one has ever made that request. Just got to get some local cash from an ATM cuz they don’t take US there.
When we got to Giraffe Manor, I sent an email to Georgia to see if she can meet us for lunch at 1pm before we head to the airport, and she replied that she can. Wooooooohooooooooo!!!! Good times to come!!!!!!!!
We had lunch and dinner on the rear terrace. The giraffes do not have access to this area. The food is just ok in my opinion, but the staff is terrific and all have such great personalities. Giraffe Manor is just beautiful. We are staying in the room called Betty, named after the wife/owner who founded the giraffe sanctuary with her husband. This room was the only room available in the original house and one of the rooms the giraffes visit in the morning seeking food.
Veta is running around like an excited Jiminy Cricket asking questions and taking pictures. She is truly having the time of her life. We walked over to the sanctuary with a staff member. All guests must be escorted because a few of the giraffes are a bit aggressive and one kick from them can kill a lion so it would be lights out if one of them decided to punt you like a football. At the sanctuary, one of the guides, David, took Veta around providing facts about the giraffes and answering her questions. Then she went up on the platform to feed Daisy. Apparently Daisy is quite aggressive and will give the visitors a head butt if they try to pet her without giving her some food. There are buckets of pellets of food that the visitors feed the giraffes. The pellets are like dry chow and I understand they have a little molasses. I tried a small piece and it just tasted like sand to me.
We walked back to the Manor with David and another giraffe named Lynn, a docile one, was at the front terrace with the guests seeking food. She was bending down and licking the food out of their hands with her long black tongue. There are several children staying here and they are quite annoying; they push in front of the adults feeding the giraffes handfuls of pellets even though they have been told by the staff to feed the giraffes one pellet at a time. Of course their parents are equally annoying because they do not tell them to stop or to behave; they just smile and look at the other guests as if to say isn’t my brat just the cutest thing…to which I want to reply, “NO.” I would love to trip one of the little crumb snatchers or toss them to the many warthogs who run around eating the leftover pellets that the giraffes miss.
The rest of the night was pretty tame. Lala Salama.