Elephant Orphanage & Giraffe Centre Tour

The tour starts by picking you from your Hotel/Home within Nairobi. You will be driven to Giraffe centre where you feed Rothschild giraffes under the supervision of keepers. The center has rescued, hand-reared and released around 500 orphaned giraffes back into the wild since opening in 1979. This attraction offers opportunities to feed the endangered Rothschild's giraffe by hand. The location also offers a fine education on the physiology, behaviors and habitat preferences of these beautiful animals.

You will then be driven to David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to walk through the center from 11am - 12pm in an open space, with a rope fence around it. The youngest elephants come trotting out of the bush to greet their keepers who stand at the ready with giant bottles of milk. For the next 10-15 minutes you can watch each little one slurp and gargle their milk. Then, you'll have time to watch the elephants play. You find out how old they were when they arrived at the orphanage, where they were rescued from, and what got them into trouble. The most common reasons for getting orphaned being: mother's poached, falling into wells, and human/wildlife conflict. Once the youngest are all fed, they are led back into the bush, and it's the turn of the 2-3 year olds. Some of them can feed themselves, and some are still fed by their keepers. Watch them interact with their keepers, munch on some branches of their favorite acacias, and play with the half drums of water and mud

The next stop visit Kazuri Bead Factory/Kobe Beads Factory. This is a pottery company that makes one of the world most beautiful beads. You will be shown all the stages from the start to the finish. It’s also a unique factory as it employs single mother parents from the poor neighborhood who earn a living to support their families. This pottery, ceramic and bead factory employs all single mothers to make its beautiful gifts and souvenirs - which are now exported all around the world. There is a gift shop which stocks some of their wares. Please note that the workshop is closed Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, however the gift shop is open 7 days.