Giraffe Manor

One of the charms of visiting East Africa is how different the flora and fauna are compared to North America. When you are in Alaska, in a rustic lodge, for example, you can expect to spot bears and moose among the evergreens. At Giraffe Manor, you can expect to be completely surrounded by longlegged friendly giraffes. Not to diminish the fact that spotting a bear is exhilerating, there's is nothing quite like a Giraffe's head at the breakfast window. Lorry Patton.

Giraffe Manor, an elegant old estate, is eight miles from Nairobi, Kenya.

Guests can feed and photograph Rothschild giraffe and warthogs and walk around the adjourning forest to view bush buck, dik dik and more than 180 species of birds.

Guests can also visit the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) educational center and sanctuary.

The Giraffe Manor, built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, is situated on 120 acres of forested land just eight miles from the city center of Kenya's modern capital, Nairobi.

In 1974, Jock Leslie-Melville, grandson of a Scottish earl, and Jock's wife Betty, bought the house, and also founded the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW). They translocated five babies of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe to their property. They are the only people ever to have successfully raised wild giraffe, which have now grown and are having babies of their own.

The fee for staying at the Giraffe Manor includes accommodations, all meals (prepared by a gourmet chef), tea, wine, cocktails. Lunches, teas, cocktails & dinners are also available to groups of fifteen or more. The Manor is managed and operated by Betty's son, Rick Anderson, who was raised in Kenya (except for getting his degree at Georgetown University, USA) and his British wife, Bryony, who was also raised in Kenya and educated in England and France.