A visit to the giraffe centre

We were intending to go to the Masai Market yesterday. It is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. However, when we put our code into the safe to retrieve our wallets, we got an error message. We reported the problem and asked that it be dealt with as a priority as we wanted to go out. To cut a long story short, nobody in the hotel had an override key, so it took until 3.30pm to get the safe open! By that time, we’d resigned ourselves to the fact that we’d missed the market and settled down to watch the Grand Prix instead!

When we went down to the restaurant for dinner, I asked about a late stay for Wednesday and suggested that I shouldn’t have to pay for it under the circumstances. The manager agreed that we could have our room until 2pm at no charge.

After breakfast today, we called an Uber to take us to the Giraffe Centre. It was a 35-minute journey and cost less than £5!!

The Giraffe Centre is an environmental conservation centre set up to protect Rothschild giraffes. It is run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W.), a Kenyan non-profit organisation. Its main purpose is to educate Kenyan school children on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest species, the giraffe.

A.F.E.W. Kenya was founded in 1979 by the late Jock Leslie-Melville, a Kenyan citizen of British descent, and his American-born wife, Betty Leslie-Melville. They began the centre after discovering the sad plight of the Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies only found in the grasslands of East Africa.

At the time, the animals had lost their habitat in Western Kenya, with only 130 of them left on the 18,000-acre Soy Ranch that was being sub-divided to resettle squatters. Their first effort to save the subspecies was to bring two young giraffes, Daisy and Marlon, to their home in the Lang’ata suburb of Nairobi. Here, they raised the calves and started a programme of breeding giraffe in captivity. This is where the centre remains to date.

Betty and Jock registered A.F.E.W. in the US. Funds were raised to move five other groups of giraffe to different safe areas. In 1983, funds raised helped build an educational centre and a 60-acre sanctuary. The Giraffe Centre opened its doors to the general public and students the same year. There are now over 300 Rothschild Giraffe safe and breeding well in various Kenyan national parks.

It was a lovely place to visit. We were given pellets on arrival to feed the giraffes with. Mark appeared to be in his element while I took photos! 😂Read more