Day One; Giraffe Manor

The Giraffe Manor is basically a small hotel. It used to be a very large house and was originally owned by the MacIntyre family (the makers of toffee) then sold to Jock and Leslie Melville. In 1976, Jock and Leslie Melville made a plight to save the Rothschild giraffe by rescuing a couple giraffes from the wild and raising them on their 140 acres of land. Today, due in large part to their breeding and releasing program, the Rothschild giraffe population has gone from a population in the 70's to a population in the hundreds.


Okay, so that is where we are. Now for the fun part. The Manor currently has 9 giraffes. Although they are wild, they really enjoy being fed pellets by people...And we have really enjoyed feeding them!

This is Gaye kissing Lynne.


Tomorrow we visit the David Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary. We will go at 11a.m. to watch them get fed. We will adopt a baby elephant, then come back at 5p.m. to put her to bed in her stall. The elephant sanctuary staff pick up orphaned elephants from all over Kenya. They bring them back to the orphanage and care for them until they are old enough to fend for themselves in the wild.

I would strongly recommend staying here if you are ever in Nairobi. It is the most relaxing, welcoming environment imaginable. The hosts are amazing and the giraffes as you can see are quite welcoming as well!


My goal for this trip is 20,000 images. For me it is a numbers game. I will take advantage of as many good picture opportunities as I can. The more I take, the better my chances of some good pictures. At the end of the trip, if I take 20,000 images, I should have about 2-5 stunning pictures, 20 great shots and maybe 200 pictures that are pretty good. 1181 pictures today. I missed my mark by 719 pictures, but tomorrow is another day... 18,819 pictures to go.

Check out our main wildlife photography website and our main wildlife photography blog.

View pictures of giraffes from Giraffe Manor.

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