Day 4 Arijiju

We woke up early to go out and find the Rhinos. We had been so fortunate in all of our game drives to see so many animals, especially finding the lions in the tall grass (as it creates great hiding spots for them).

We headed out to the hills and again drove through the grass. We drove for almost 2 hours without seeing an animal. We thought our luck may have changed. We came through a clearing where the grass was low and shrubs were dotted along the landscape. There were two white rhinos.

We sat and took in the details of these prehistoric giants. The white rhinos have a flat wide mouth and high forehead. They are not called white for their color, but for the shape of their wide mouths. Somehow, over time wide was translated to white.

We moved on and continued to look for black rhinos. The black rhinos are more elusive and skittish. They are not comfortable with vehicles near them.

We had not gone far, as we came around a bend in the small dirt road we were on, two more rhinos appeared. We pulled out our binoculars to see what we found. The narrow mouths of these creatures let us know we had found the black rhinoceros.

The rhinos were not going to stick around for us. We were able to snap a few photos, and they moved along.

Before heading back to the house, we had a coffee break in the bush. Like our sundowner, our guide Ekai opened the back of the truck and prepared coffee and cookies.

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We headed back toward the house and enjoyed the animals, Mount Kenya, and the rolling hills.

We relaxed for a bit in the middle of the day, and then we were heading off to an elephant sanctuary.

We were picked up by helicopter, and flew toward Reteti. The helicopter ride was fantastic, we flew low as we looked at the animals, villages, and people below. The terrain was beautiful as we flew through different ecosystems, you could feel the change in the temperature. We flew through the Great Rift Valley. It is a valley that runs all the way from Lebanon through Kenya. The peaks are 10,000 feet and the valley floor is at 3000 feet in elevation.

We arrived at Reteti at feeding time. We lined up behind the staff as the young elephants came running in for their meal. We stood taking it all in as each elephant had their bottles. You could see where there baby tusks went up into their faces. The elephants were darling and a bit mischievous.

We had a short presentation about the food they give the elephants. They also explained how they reintegrate the elephants back into their natural habitat. The sanctuary has been there for seven years. They have been reintroducing about a dozen elephants back into the wild a few times a year.

We learned that the sanctuary not only brings jobs to the staff, but the local people. The sanctuary purchases the goat milk from local women. They are feeding anywhere between 30 and 40 elephants at a time. The elephants drink about 2.5 liters 8 times a day.

After our presentation we loaded back up into the helicopters and again enjoyed the sites below.

We again were surprised with a sundowner stop. This time we were literally on the top of a mountain. We had a 360 degrees view.

We were all overwhelmed by all we had experienced, it was surely a day that will not soon be forgotten.

We cannot thank Anastasia Africa enough for organizing the trip of a lifetime!!!

Thank you to the team at Arijiju! Every day was more magical than the one before.

Thank you to our pilots, Andrew and Harry from Ol Malo Heli. This was one of the most memorable day of our lives!!!