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Quanza has become very protective of Kiasa. When Zongoloni came over to persuade Kiasa to go with her, Quanza quickly came over to persuade Kiasa otherwise. Sonje has also started positioning herself so that she can block Zongoloni from leaving with Kiasa. However, Zongoloni managed to make the whole herd follow her in the direction she wanted to go. The Keepers were not happy with the path she had chosen, it had lots of lava rocks, which made it difficult for Murera to follow.

Faraja and Alamaya appeared in the middle of the path; they had come from the forest where they had spent the last couple of days. With the distraction of the boys, Zongoloni saw her chance and once again tried to sneak Kiasa away. The Keepers realised her intentions and stopped her.

The whole herd, including Kiasa and Zongoloni, followed the Keepers back. It was very hot. Sonje decided to lead the herd to the waterhole to cool off. She walked very quickly taking the most direct path. The orphan herd had a fun time playing in the mud bath and swimming. It even turned into a competition, with all of them showing off their abilities. Enkesha won the best swimmer today.

This morning, Kiombo and his sparring partner, Maktao, started their daily pushing match, testing their strength on each other. They don’t fight each other as enemies, but rather like a game between friends. 

It is very dry around Umani at the moment. This seems to have made all the animals tolerate each other like friends; antelopes and baboons now walk along together in peace. The baboons climb up the acacia trees and the antelopes feed on the pods that fall. Enkesha and Alamaya want to get the acacia pods that fall from the trees too, they get jealous of the antelopes and they chase them away. The baboons were also scared off by the elephants, relocating to some acacia trees further away. Alamaya has decided he is now in charge of shaking the trees to get the pods down. Sonje brought the whole orphan herd under the trees for shade and to enjoy the pods. 

In the afternoon some buffalos arrived at the waterhole, desperate for water to drink. They found the orphans wallowing in the mud bath; Quanza saw the buffaloes first and raised the alarm. Murera began trumpeting loudly, which scared the buffaloes, they ran back to the bushes waiting until the orphans had left the waterhole before they came in to drink.

This morning, Kiasa, Zongoloni and Faraja decided to spend time on their own and distanced themselves from the herd, excluding all the nightclubbers except for Lima Lima. After some greetings and interaction, Kiasa and Zongoloni wandered away together. Sonje was joined by Kiombo as she led the other orphans to the top of Umani Hill where there is still plenty of food.

Kiombo spotted some acacia tubers and, without wasting time, began digging in the ground for more. As always, Maktao approached him and began play fighting with his friend. Only this time it was a real confrontation as Kiombo was defending his tubers. He had dug deeper than Maktao and he was not sharing his spoils – to the orphans, acacia roots are tasty like potatoes! Sonje did her best to stop the boys fighting and to separate them.

Feeling defeated by Kiombo, Maktao walked over to Enkesha, his close friend, to tell her about the fight. Enkesha placed her trunk over the downcast boy’s head and round his cheeks to comfort him.

The night was full of animal noises – hyenas screaming, followed by baboons, and wild elephants trumpeting loudly from the direction of Umani Springs. The orphans in their stockades were upset by the commotion. Murera and Sonje suspected that something was wrong and urgently alerted the Keepers by pushing at their gates. Enkesha and her friend and neighbour Maktao were together, as Maktao had pulled down the gate that separated the two orphans. Inspecting the stockades, the Keepers found nothing, although they could hear elephants fighting and they felt that the bushes towards the hills had an air of tension. It was not long before the nightclubbers came running home as the wild elephants continued to trumpet.

In the morning, Sonje sneaked her trunk out in between the posts, trying to calm the nightclubbers from inside her stockade. The Keepers opened the gates but stopped the orphans from setting off in the direction of the wild elephants. Murera and Sonje were happy to oblige but it took Zongoloni time to convince the herd to follow the two matriarchs towards the Chyulu Hills.

Unfortunately, four big buffaloes blocked their way to the hills, so big boys Jasiri and Ngasha decided to clear the path. When they saw Jasiri and Ngasha coming towards them, the buffaloes panicked. Mwashoti and Alamaya supported their efforts by trumpeting and were congratulated for being brave boys by the Keepers.

Many animals are arriving at Umani Springs every day; at night, the Keepers continue to hear the sounds of wild elephants. More and more wild friends are arriving in the area with the nightclubbers who, feeling threatened by the wildfires on the top of the Chyulu Hills, are gravitating towards the safety of home and to their trusted Keepers.

Today, Lima Lima and Zongoloni walked back towards the stockades with Mwashoti but left Alamaya as he had refused to come home. The three elephants greeted the Keepers who were with Enkesha and Kiasa. Kiasa was so happy to see her friend Zongoloni who in turn called to her and then they hugged each other.

Ziwa arrived later to visit the orphans. He did his best to protect Jasiri from being bullied or chased by his wild friends. However, when a bull with huge tusks approached Jasiri as he was pulling down the branches of an acacia tree, the orphan was fearful and ran away in the direction of Umani Hill.

Sonje was watching how Jasiri, despite being the big boy in the orphans’ herd, had been chased away. Faraja and Ziwa also stayed, enjoying the company of the younger wild bulls. Later on, Ziwa and his herd linked up again and headed off towards the bushes around Kenzili.

There are many buffaloes in the Umani area at the moment. Today, some of them surrounded the herd of orphans, browsing too closely and disturbing the babies. Looking behind her, Lima Lima found two buffaloes grazing close by. She turned and trumpeted loudly to scare them away but instead the buffaloes waited for the herd to react. Enkesha and Quanza clearly also felt uncomfortable. A few minutes later, Zongoloni, Faraja and Jasiri joined the orphans, and were welcomed by Lima Lima. Jasiri and the other boys raised up their ears, asking the buffalos what they were doing among the herd, and the two animals ran away to the Kenzili area.

After this incident, the Keepers instructed Sonje to take the herd in a different direction and avoid the buffaloes. Listening to Sonje, Enkesha and Maktao directed the other little boys to follow them away from Kenzili. As Kiasa and Kiombo were browsing near Umani Hill, two warthogs sprinted out of the bushes, scaring Kiombo who was pulling down branches to eat. He moved towards Sonje, feeling unsure of what the warthogs were doing. As a result of the commotion, Sonje and the orphans were all on alert and charged the bushes together to scare away the warthogs.

This morning, Ngasha injured himself trying to mount Zongoloni, who moved away before he could lift his front legs onto her. Then he fell backwards and ended up lying on one side with a sprained leg. In need of attention, he limped over to where the Keepers were sitting to show them his injury and they applied some medication. During the incident, Sonje and Murera watched him approach but moved away rather than welcoming him. Jasiri and the other babies also ignored him, possibly because Ngasha has in the past been rude to his friends.

Later in the day as everyone was having a good time wandering in the forest, busily looking for acacia trees so they could peel off the bark, many baboons and antelopes approached them. They were hoping to share the pods on the branches. Not trusting the animals, Enkesha ran off but Quanza faced up to the perceived threat and prevented the others from following. Alamaya and Mwashoti joined her and together they chased away the baboons.

In the early morning, after emerging from their stockades, Murera and Sonje were joined at the lucerne feeding area by Lima Lima who arrived with all the nightclubbers. Soon, Jasiri, Ziwa and Faraja were clashing over the remaining pellets as baboons gathered to eat the left overs. Usually the ‘table cleaners’, as the Keepers call them, wait until the orphans have disappeared but not today. Rather than stand up to the baboons, Jasiri and Faraja walked away with Murera into the forest. Mwashoti, however, with the support of several smaller orphans, charged and trumpeted at the baboons for quite some time, doing his best to chase them away.

Towards midday, the orphans returned to the mud bath from Kenzili which is a long distance away. Sonje chose the best short cuts as she knew the younger orphans were hot and thirsty for their bottles. Kiasa, Maktao, Enkesha and Kiombo were the first to arrive at the mud bath, having almost raced each other back. Enkesha and Kiombo were being really competitive, with Kiombo keen to be first and overtaking Enkesha as they came closer to the bottles.

Lima Lima was not her happy self this morning – she was walking slowly and feeling unwell. Noticing this, Sonje went over to her and stayed with her. The Keepers were also concerned, thinking that Lima Lima could have eaten something bad especially as everything is so dry. Sonje, Murera, Kiombo and the others wisely left Lima Lima with the Keepers and headed off. She was taken back to her stockade and given some medication but soon felt better and demanded to be allowed out so she could join her friends.

When the orphans trooped back to the midday bottle feeding point and mud bath, they found Lima Lima feeling much better and wallowing as she waited for her friends. After gulping down their bottles, Sonje and Quanza led the elephants off in the direction of the Chyulu Hills, with the herd eating acacia branches as they wandered along. Suddenly, Enkesha and Maktao started running and trumpeting loudly, surprising the Keepers. The source of the commotion was soon established, as Zongoloni and Limalima gestured to the top of a tree where a leopard’s legs could be seen dangling from a branch. The Keepers walked quietly away with the orphans, some of whom had to be persuaded to stop charging the tree.

The ongoing drought has led to many animals gathering in the area around Umani Springs in search of food. Today, while the orphans were on their day patrol towards Umani Hill, many buffaloes blocked the pathways. Strong boy Alamaya with Mwashoti moved around them to create a path for the orphans to follow Sonje and Murera to the top of the hill. Then, they bravely overpowered the buffaloes, forcing them to scatter on the slopes of Umani Hills.

When Murera, Sonje and Lima Lima saw Alamaya and Mwashoti coming to join them at the top of the hill, the big girls welcomed them, rumbling in joy and celebration as the boys continued to trumpet and charge at shrubs. The Keepers were very relieved to see the young boy heroes dispatch the buffalos, thereby also protecting their carers.

Towards midday as the orphans returned to the stockades, thirsty Enkesha and her friend Maktao sprinted for their bottles as Zongoloni and Lima Lima escorted the other babies to the feeding place and then on to the water hole. The nightclubbers trailed along behind but knew that they would not be given milk. Kiombo stayed close to Sonje for protection from Faraja and Ngasha as well as Ziwa who had arrived in the company of wild elephants. Ziwa spent a short time with the orphans before disappearing into the bush with his wild adopted friends.