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The Giraffe Manor, built
in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, is situated on
120 acres of forested land in the Karen district,
just eight miles from the city center of Kenya's
bustling capital, Nairobi. In 1974, Jock Leslie-Melville
bought the house, and with his wife Betty,
eventually made it home to the African Fund
for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW). They began
this organization by translocating five babies
of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe
species to the property. Jock and Betty are
the only people who have ever successfully
raised wild giraffe, and these giraffe are
now fully-grown and producing offspring.
After Jock died, Betty opened
the house, now called Giraffe Manor, to select
travelers. It is the only place in the world
where you can feed giraffe from your second
floor bedroom window, or over the lunch table
in the sun room, and even at the front door
as these gentle giants try to squeeze into
the foyer.
Betty's son, Rick Anderson
and his wife Bryony (who were both raised
in Africa) now run the Manor. It is a magnet
for the rich and famous, including: Walter
Cronkite, Brook Shields, Richard Chamberlain,
Dick Clark, Johnny Carson and Jack Paar -
just to name a few! Lunches, teas, cocktails,
and dinners are also available to groups of
ten or more but must be booked far in advance.
Accommodations: Spacious
and elegant, the Manor has four double bedrooms
available to guests. Bedrooms have either
connecting or adjacent baths. One bedroom
is furnished with Karen Blixen's "Out
of Africa" furniture that she gave to
Jock's mother in 1932 when she returned to
her native homeland, Denmark. The upstairs
hall contains the original bookcase Dennis
Finch-Hatton made for her.
Special Activities: Guests
can feed and photograph the giraffe and warthogs
on the grounds of The Manor, and wander through
the adjoining primeval forest where bush buck,
dikdik, and more than 180 species of birds
can be seen
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