Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Karen Blixen & Giraffe Centre Tours

David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was established in 1977 to honor the memory of a famous Naturalist, David Leslie William Sheldrick MBE, the founder Warden of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya. David Sheldrick Conservation Foundation rehabilitates baby elephants and other wildlife here at her home just outside of Nairobi National Park. These babies have lost their mothers to poaching, death, injuries, on getting lost in the wild or other tragedies. Daphne and her dedicated staff raise them to be released back into the wild when they are ready. It’s worth visiting and see humanitarian care to the wildlife and the heart it takes to care. David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage is where you come close to elephant calves.

Giraffe centre

The giraffe center was started by Jock Leslie-Melville, the Kenyan grandson of a Scottish Earl, when he and his wife Betty captured a baby giraffe to start a program of breeding giraffe in captivity at their home in Langata – home of the present centre. Since then the program has had huge success, resulting in the introduction of several breeding pairs of Rothschild Giraffe into Kenyan National Parks.

The giraffe centre was established in order to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe, giraffe Camelopardalis Rothschild, that is found only in the grasslands of Africa. In 1979, Leslie-Melville added an education centre to his (then still private) giraffe sanctuary. By 1983 he had raised enough money to establish the Giraffe Visitor’s Centre as a tourist destination in Nairobi. The center is also home to several warthogs which freely roam the area along with the giraffes. The main attraction for visitors is feeding giraffes from a raised observation platform.

Karen Blixen Museum

Karen Blixen Museum is open to the Public every day (9.30 am to 6pm) including weekends and public holidays. Located 18km from the city centre, the Museum belongs to a different time period in the history of Kenya. The farm house gained international fame with the release of the movie ‘Out of Africa’ an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s an autobiography by the same title. Visitors are encouraged to be at the Museum by 8.00 am – 5.30 pm. Guided tours are offered continuously. A museum shop offers handicrafts, posters and postcards, the Movie ‘Out of Africa’, books and other Kenyan souvenirs. Karen Blixen Museum was once the centre piece of a farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills owned by Danish Author Karen and her Swedish Husband, Baron Bror von Blixen Fincke.

This museum was originally the home of Karen Blixen, who came to Kenya from Denmark in the early part of this century; the present museum site is at the heart of the larger coffee plantation run by Blixen between 1914 and 1931. The house and surrounding land was donated by the Danish government to Kenya at independence; the house was restored by the Danish government and was used during the filming of Out of Africa, which immortalized Karen Blixen’s book by the same name. The Museum was opened to the public in 1986. Much of the original furniture is on display in the house, and combined with the beautifully landscaped gardens and encompassing view of the Ngong Hills, the Museum has continued to a be very popular destination for international and local visitors. The original kitchen has been restored and is now open for viewing. A Dove Stove similar to the one used by Blixen is on display, as are other period kitchen utensils. Reconstruction of the coffee factory as an additional attraction is underway and other early farm machinery is also on display, depicting the early settler life in Kenya.

Tour cost: US$90 per person

Departs: At 10:30 hrs every day

Tour Duration: 6 hours