Auntie Carrie and Uncle Pete's Adventures: In Search of Giraffes and Zebras

Dear Giselle and Estella,

After skyping with you both last weekend we decided to go on an adventure in search of your favorite animals. Since we are so far away from you on the other side of the world, and could not take you with us, we took a lot of pictures to show you what we found.

Since you told us your favorite animals were giraffes and zebras, we went in search of them.
 

Our friend Steve picked us up in Nairobi where we live.  We piled into the van with our bags and drove several hours north towards the highlands of Laikipia in central Kenya where we planned to stay.

Our friend Steve and his van

On the way, we passed the equator which is exactly half way between Santa Claus in the north pole, and the penguins in the south pole! 

Auntie Carrie and Uncle Pete at the equator!

When the paved road ended, we drove ten more miles on a dusty, bumpy, winding dirt path which the locals call a road.  The van rattled and clanked along as we went over rocks, through streams, and further into the bush.

(Click Read More to see the rest of the adventure!)

The end of the paved road

We bounced along this dirt track for 10 miles!

We were a little worried about getting stuck in this river, but Steve drove through it without a problem.

Though the drive seemed to go on forever, we eventually arrived at a place named El Karama Ranch, which turned out to be a beautiful oasis on the edge of a rushing river.  One of the first instructions we were given after arriving at the ranch was to most definitely not swim in the river as there had been recent crocodile sightings! (And we know that crocodiles are not your favorite animal!)

Auntie Carrie sitting in our tent at El Karama Ranch, looking down at the river to see if she could see any crocodiles!

We took the afternoon to rest, and come up with a plan to find your friends the Giraffes and Zebras somewhere in the vast savannah surrounding the ranch. 

Lo and behold, while we sat there, a herd of elephants walked by!  Directly across the river from where we were sitting on our porch, 13 elephants (including some little babies) sauntered by, eating the trees, playing in the sun, and enjoying their Friday afternoon.

A herd of elephants walking by our porch

Auntie Carrie yelled across the river to them: “JAMBO ELEPHANTS” (Jambo means hello in Swahili).  “Have you seen Giselle and Estella’s friends the zebras and giraffes?”

The big papa elephant replied in a deep, husky voice “Jambo Rafiki” (rafiki means friend in Swahili), “I don’t mean to be rude, but can’t you see we are trying to eat here?” And then he lumbered on, crashing through the bushes, grabbing hold of anything in sight with his big trunk, and stuffing it into his mouth as he walked.

Then came a small little voice that said “Don’t mind my dad, he always gets grumpy when he’s hungry!” At first Auntie Carrie and Uncle Pete didn’t know where this little voice came from, but when they looked closely using their binoculars, they saw a little baby elephant, whose trunk barely stuck up over the bushes she was walking through.

Auntie Carrie looking for the source of the little voice

The friendly baby elephant

The baby elephant continued “We just passed a herd of Girrafe and Zebras this morning, if you walk over the hills in the direction we came from, you should be able to find them. Make sure you tell Giselle and Estella Jambo from the elephants!”  And with that, the herd continued down along the river and out of sight.

That evening, we hopped back in the van with our friend, Steve, to drive around the ranch. Using the Elephant’s instructions, we tried to find your friends the Giraffes and Zebras.  We bounced along the bumpy roads and after a sharp corner, we came upon a large Water Buffalo wallowing in a mud pit. We approached carefully, since when startled, Water Buffalo can attack. “Jambo, Mr. Buffalo! Have you seen Giselle and Estella’s friends the zebras and giraffes?”

The Water Buffalo lifted his head from the mud and replied in a low grumble, “Privacy please! Can’t you see I’m taking a bath in the mud?!”

Grumpy old Mr. Buffalo taking a mud bath

We hurried along, not wanting to further upset the muddy beast.

Steve drove along in the warm African sun. We came over a hill and Steve had to stop suddenly since there was a herd of gazelle blocking the road. They were quite curious and surrounded the car, peering into the windows to see who the strangers were. “Jambo Gazelle! Have you seen Giselle and Estella’s friends the zebras and giraffes?”

“Oh we were just playing with them this morning! They are our friends too! When we saw them last, the zebras were headed up over that hill in search of some fresh grass to eat … and the giraffes were nibbling on the tops of the trees you can see in the distance,” the gazelle said and used her nose to point in the direction of the hill. “Say jambo to Giselle and Estella for us, and tell them to come play with us some day!”

A friendly gazelle saying jambo to Giselle and Estella

“Asante Sana gazelles!” replied Uncle Pete. (Asante Sana means thank you very much).

By this time, it was late afternoon, the sun was starting to set, and we were still far from the ranch. Steve turned the van around and we drove back along the bumpy roads in the dark night without yet having found your friends.

Suddenly, we saw something moving in the tall grass by the side of the road. Steve slammed on the brakes and shined a flashlight in the direction of the movement. Out of the night, a silhouette appeared and a large leopard came into view! His spots were lit up by the flashlight as he made his way through the grass looking for his prey.

“Jambo Leopard, sorry to disturb you on your hunt, but have you seen Giselle and Estella’s friends the zebras and giraffes?”

“Silly visitors! Don’t you know they are sound asleep? You will have to look for them in the morning.”

“Asante Sana, Leopard!” Uncle Pete called quickly, just as the leopard disappeared into the night continuing on his hunt.

The leopard hunting his prey at night

Steve drove us back to El Karama ranch where we slept soundly in our tent by the river.

The next morning, we woke early and realized the only way we could find Giselle and Estella’s friends was to head out into the bush on foot. We asked Joseph, our trusty guide, to come with us and show us the way. We had never walked on foot in the African bush, and we were a little nervous that we might run into a hungry lion or an angry elephant! To be safe, Joseph carried a big rifle in case any large animal tried to attack us.

Our guide

We set out and immediately found some elephant tracks in the sand. We knew we must be heading in the right direction!

Elephant prints in the sand! We must be on the right track!

A little further along, we saw a family of warthogs digging in the dirt and snorting along. We called out to them, but they were startled and scurried away before telling us any news.

We continued on, and at once Joseph stopped. He knelt down and pointed in the mud. “Fresh lion tracks!” We jumped back and quickly looked around. We could not see any movement in the grass, but our heartbeats quickened at the thought of a lion stalking through the bushes nearby.

Fresh lion tracks ... this made us a little nervous!

We continued on, very alert to the slightest movements in the bush. It was getting later in the morning, and the strong, African sun beat down on us, making us sweat more and more. Thankfully, we never saw the lion. That would have been really scary!

After getting over the shock of the lion’s prints, we paused and used our binoculars to search for zebras and giraffes in the distance. After pearing through her binoculars in all directions, Auntie Carrie cried out, “I see them! There in the distance, the zebras!”

Auntie Carrie using her binoculars to look for the zebras

We hurried across the valley and eventually we came over a ridge to find a herd of zebras grazing in the grass!

“Jambo zebras! We have looked all over for you! We came to tell you that you are one of Giselle and Estella’s favorite animals!” said Auntie Carrie.

Auntie Carrie calling out to the shy zebras

The zebras looked up from the grass, and were too shy to reply. One eventually said, “We are so happy. Nobody has ever sent us a message from the other side of the world! Tell Giselle and Estella we would love to meet them someday!”

With that, still being a bit shy, they ran off into the distance, their black and white stripes fading away into the horizon.

"Tell Giselle and Estella we would love to meet them someday!" said the zebras

Happy to have seen the zebras, we looked around for the giraffes from the ridgetop we were standing on. And there, not too far away, we could see the long necks of the giraffes towering over the treetops.

“How could we have missed them before?” asked Uncle Pete. “They are nearly twice the height of those trees they are eating!”

Spotting the Giraffes for the first time. How could we have missed them, they are so tall!

We ran down towards the giraffes and Uncle Pete shouted, “Jambo giraffes! We have looked all over for you! We are bringing a message from Giselle and Estella from halfway around the world that you are one of their favorite animals!”

The giraffes paused mid-bite, and turned their long necks around to peer down at us.

One giraffe stepped forward, batted her eyelashes, and with big eyes said, “Really? What an honor! In that case, we have a message for Giselle and Estella – we would like to send them a giraffe kiss!”

The giraffe peering down at us

“But how will we get the kiss, we are so short and you are so tall!” cried Auntie Carrie.

But how will we get the kiss, you are SO tall, and we are SO short!

 “Here, climb up on this ladder!” called out the giraffe.

Auntie Carrie carefully climbed up the ladder, and hesitantly puckered her lips to get the giraffe kiss!

The giraffe swooped in and before Uncle Pete could get a good picture, gave Auntie Carrie a big, wet, slobbery giraffe kiss to deliver to Giselle and Estella!

Auntie Carrie getting a big, wet, slobbery giraffe kiss

And with that, dear Giselle and Estella, your message has been delivered, and we now have a slobbery giraffe kiss to give to you when we see you next!


With love,
Auntie Carrie & Uncle Pete






(Editors note: The water buffalo picture was actually taken in Lake Nakuru, and the giraffe kissing incident took place at the Giraffe center in Nairobi.  All other pictures and parts of the story did indeed take place at El Karama)