When someone offers you the chance to do something that you’ve always wanted to do, I guess you should always say yes. In the case of being offered a trip to East Africa to see some wildlife, I still managed to spend more than a week thinking about it before I made up my mind. Fred and Elizabeth, who I had known for several years as they were long-time customers of mine with their computer problems, had made plans to visit Kenya for a week on their way to Uganda for the Christmas period. It made sense for them to make a detour as they wished to finally meet the orphaned elephant that they sponsored with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi.

They had, like many of us in the British Isles, first become acquainted with the little orphan Lualeni as she featured prominently on the BBC’s Elephant Diaries series. I’d seen the programmes myself and enjoyed them, but never really gave any thought to the possibility of visiting the locations – let alone the elephants – featured. In any case, Fred had done his research and discovered that he could visit the release centre at Ithumba and would then have what was described as “unique access” to the orphans at the centre, including Lualeni who had now grown a little and been moved away from the infant nursery in Nairobi.

His only problem – if you could call it that – was that he had to book the camp on an exclusive basis. It sleeps six and there were just the two of them. With all the arrangements already made, they approached me with their fantastic offer. I’d spoken to Fred on several working visits about the possibility of visiting Africa, but we both recognised the difficulty travelling alone and the additional expense that it would entail for me. Fred simply suggested that I come along with them. They’d already paid for the camp, vehicle and driver so all I’d have to find would be airfare, a couple of nights at a hotel in Nairobi and share in the costs for food and drink. They would be travelling on to Uganda, but I could just fly back to the UK on my own at the end of the week.

Well, of course I didn’t know what to expect, but it was, after all, something that I’d always wanted to do. That’s probably why it took me so long to say yes. I was not what you would call a seasoned traveller – I’d only been abroad to Europe three times and never any further. Of course, I’d have the help of the two of them on the way out and coming back would just be a case of retracing my steps through familiar places so I knew I could deal with it. After all, millions of people travel the world all the time – it can’t be that difficult! Besides, Fred was making all the travel plans and he really does know what he’s doing with this stuff.

After the long trip to Nairobi via Amsterdam, we arrived very early in the morning at our rather nice hotel, the Fairview in the heart of the city. We were on a fairly tight schedule for the first day, planning to be at the Sheldrick Trust’s nursery in Nairobi National Park by 11am to meet with Angela Sheldrick, who runs things and also our driver to plan the following day. Once the details were sorted out, we would be able to visit with the orphans at the daily mud-bath – my first chance to see African Elephants, albeit small ones. 

Hitting the ground running after such a long overnight flight is quite hard, but we were all excited to be starting out with the little orphans right away. I made sure I had a spare battery for the camera, fitted the longest lens and we were all in the taxi and on our way in good time. We made our introductions, sorted out the rest of our financial arrangements, met our driver and headed down to the mud-pool with the minimum of fuss.

Even on this first visit to the orphanage the somewhat commercial nature of this part of the operation was apparent. They survive on the kind donations and sponsorship of people from the West and the Far East. The mud bath and other activities are carefully placed and timed to give great photo opportunities for visitors who may become donors or sponsors and are a little bit orchestrated and artificial. What this means is that the mud-bath has a rope around it and we were soon situated on one side of this rope, along with about 30 other people.

The orphans – from just a few months old up to around three years – arrived in twos and threes to be bottle fed with milk formula. All of them were to some degree dependent on this milk to survive. There were lots of sympathetic and satisfied sounds from the waiting crowd. The orphans were then encouraged to take a bit of a bath – they need the protection of the mud, not just from parasites, but also from the harshness of the sun and the heat of the day.

Well, I’ve got the camera going more or less as fast as it can by this point. Indeed, I manage to take more than 500 photos of them splashing and playing in little more than half an hour. Of course, lots of people have cameras, but I’m lucky that I’ve brought a big lens with me and I take full advantage by getting some really fantastic close-up shots of individuals as well as some action shots of the splashing and playing.

As an aside, I’ve used a Pentax camera for as long as I’ve been taking photos of my own and I don’t think I’ll ever change. For this trip I splashed out and purchased a Sigma 50-500mm telephoto zoom. I didn’t think I would need the 500mm for elephants, but it would be great for birds and any wildlife too shy to come close. As it happened, I took loads of photos in the 300mm to 500mm range of the lens and have used it extensively on almost every trip since. 

There is a natural expectation when taking photos of wild animals that they will be retiring, shy even. One assumes that the photos will be at a distance and that getting the angles you want will be a challenge. Of course, with a set of friendly and crowd ignoring orphans this is just not a problem. Even when I am really close to the animals, I find I really like that up-close and personal approach. With elephants – from orphans to full grown wild ones – I want to get to know them and getting in close is the only way.

Perhaps it is because of these first series of photos that I now have an enduring love of elephants and their interactions with mud, dust and water. My introduction to them was at the mud bath and I cannot now resist when an elephant is splashing or dusting. Maybe it is just that it’s really photogenic to have all that red earth dust flying about. 

It was quite an intense introduction to the little ones, but a very rewarding experience. Straight away I can see that each individual has a unique character. Some are playful, some are reserved. Some like water and some really don’t. All of them have friends and tend to stick together. This is something that their keepers and other staff are well aware of. Friends are kept together when they are moved to their release locations and they often stay close together for life. I also found out something I never really expected – infant elephants have to learn how to use their trunks. The really young ones are quite un-coordinated and have quite a comical struggle at times as they try to get a drink of water.