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The orphans were not very energetic this morning, they didn’t run out the stockades as normal, but instead they slowly walked out and went to feed on the Lucerne pellets. Alamya and Lima Lima stopped to have some pellets after the babies had finished. 

The orphan herd started heading to the Umani Springs, where they found that a wild herd with babies had got there before them. Zongoloni and Lima Lima were very happy to see the babies and it seemed like they already knew this herd, they rumbled their friendly greetings. Lima Lima went and joined the wild herd. Murera and Sonje were left in charge of the younger orphans. One of the wild females chased Maktao and Enkesha, thinking her baby would go with the orphans, so they rushed into the bushes to hide. 

Sonje decided to change the plan, rather than browsing around the Umani Hills she decided to choose a route where they would get more food. The Kenzili area had loads of food but it was slightly further away. This was Sonje’s favorite place to browse. Sonje and Quanza are still the trusted leaders so none of the orphans argued, they all followed the older girls to the Kenzili area. Even the nightclubbers followed slowly behind, with Alamaya, Mwashoti and Murera bringing up the rear. 

This morning, as the orphans were eating their lucerne pellets outside the stockades, some baboons came to disturb them and try and steal some pellets. Murera was acting as the security guard and tried to chase the baboons away, but because of her bad leg she was struggling. The baboons noticed, so they were not afraid of her. So, Quanza and Enkesha came to help her chase the baboons away, then all the orphans joined in. Chaos ensued for ten minutes as elephants and baboons were all running all over the place, it was like a game for them. Then one of the baboons fell in the water trough. The Keepers ran over, as they didn’t want it to drown. By now all the orphans had surrounded the trough, trying to see what was happening. After the Keepers saved the baboon, the games stopped and the orphans went back to calmly browsing, while the baboons disappeared into the treetops. 

While the orphans were out browsing in the early morning, they heard the buffaloes making a lot of noise in the Umani Springs area. Quanza and Enkesha quickly run over to where the noise was coming from to see what was happening. When they got there, they saw a leopard attacking a buffalo calf. Quanza and Enkesha tried to chase away the leopard, but it didn’t work, so they ran back to the orphan herd and the Keepers to get them to come and help. The orphans made lots of noise, trumpeting and surrounding the leopard to try and scare it. This worked, and the leopard ran off into the bush, leaving the baby buffalo behind. Upon closer inspection, the Keepers saw that the baby buffalo was mostly okay, aside from a small injury near its tail but it survived. Soon, his mother came and retrieved him. The Keepers were so happy that their orphans saved this little life.

Maktao and Enkesha are best friends, and they are always walking together and playing. The Keepers thought they would enjoy sharing a stockade, but surprisingly, this didn’t work, as they started fighting each other when it was time for their milk bottles. Instead, the Keepers decided to separate them but put them in stockade next to each other, so they could be neighbours. 

However, Maktao is very jealous boy. He started feeling jealous of Kiombo because Sonje has adopted him as he chosen baby. This morning Maktao started a fight with Kiombo, but Kiombo is stronger and easily pushed Maktao down. Enkesha came to rescue, but Kiombo ran to Sonje for protection. Maktao and Enkesha surrendered because they both respect Sonje and didn’t want to make her angry.

Mwashoti, Alamaya, and Ngasha report back to the stockades early every morning. Mwashoti spends the day browsing with Enkesha, who is one of his best friends. Today, Mwashoti snuck off with Enkesha, causing her to miss her midday bottle of milk. Keepers looked around for her but could not find her. Maktao felt very lonely, as Enkesha is also his best friend and they usually spend their day browsing together as well. Maktao followed the Keepers, as he knew they were looking for Enkesha and he wanted to help find her, too. 

Later in the afternoon, the Keepers heard trumpeting a little distance away. The orphans ran quickly to where the sound was coming from. Some Keepers followed the orphans, while some remained behind to look after Sonje and Murera. It was Mwashoti and Enkesha, coming back towards the stockade. Everyone turned back and walked home together. Maktao was very happy to have his friend back. 

This morning was very cold and the orphans did not want to drink the water from the troughs in the stockades. The Keepers saw that Maktao, and Enkesha’s troughs were completely full, as if they hadn’t drunk anything all night. After checking the temperature, the Keepers guessed that they hadn’t touched the water because it was unpleasantly cold. The Keepers even noticed a difference in the way Murera and Sonje were walking, but this changed back to normal when the morning warmed up. 

Later in the day, the orphans went to cross the Umani Springs but there was a herd of buffalo blocking the way. Zongoloni and Alamaya had started crossing at another point, but she then spotted a crocodile with a bushbuck in its jaws. They both charged at the crocodile, trumpeting loudly to try to save the bushbuck. The crocodile rushed back to the water and left the bushbuck. Unfortunately, the bushbuck did not survive its ordeal.

Ngasha saw a wild herd approaching and wanted to go greet them, but he was also scared that they would not welcome him. Ngasha went to greet the female elephants, until a tough bull pushed him hard. Murera and Sonje were watching, scared of what was happening, while Mwashoti observed in disbelief. Fearful of getting in the way or being pushed, Enkesha and Maktao moved off in one direction, while Kiasa and Kiombo moved off in another direction.

Zongoloni and Faraja arrived later, both in happy, energetic moods. When Kiasa saw Zongoloni, she was very happy and ran to her. The orphans wanted to go to the Chyulu area, but Jasiri tried to block their path. Alamaya showed the orphan herd a different way to get there, leaving Jasiri alone.

While still in the Chyulu Hills area, they encountered two dik diks playing. One of the tiny antelopes ran under Alamaya, who got confused and scared and trumpeted loudly. This caused the whole orphan herd to run over to him to see what was happening. 

The afternoon was much warmer, so the elephants celebrated in the mud bath to cool off. They had lots of fun. Kiasa and Kiombo were very happy, showing off their swimming skills, until Ngasha arrived and immediately started pushing the babies around. The babies waked out, leaving him alone with lots of space to wallow. Of course, he got bored quickly and didn’t enjoy being in the mud bath by himself.