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Alamaya, Quanza and Sonje did not want to follow the direction that Faraja was heading in, they thought that area didn’t have enough greens to browse on, as they saw that Faraja was just picking dry grass. Sonje and Quanza with all the babies following behind, headed towards the Kenze hills area where they knew they would have more food. Sonje kept going deeper into the bushes, this made the babies doubt whether to follow her. Enkesha whispered to little Maktao and Kiasa not to follow her, then Quanza came to join them too. It was like Quanza knew that Sonje was headed to meet with her friend Osama. Quanza was right, Sonje met with Osama, but after a very short time, Sonje left him. Osama was no longer showing interest in Sonje, she moved back to where Murera and Mwashoti were browsing.

A herd of wild elephants with their little babies waited strategically in an area they knew the orphans would have to walk past. The orphans led the keepers to where the wild herd where waiting. They raised their trunks in greeting and communicated that they wanted their wild babies to meet the orphan herd. Sonje and Quanza led the orphans to meet the wild babies, one of the mothers walked out to meet Sonje, but Kiombo who was following close behind got scared and immediately changed direction. Kiombo was not interested in meeting the babies, he was jealous of the attention Sonje was giving them. Sonje noticed and rumbled to him to stop complaining and to go and join her.

Alamaya, Faraja and Jasiri then began fighting over who would remain with the orphan her. Faraja is peace loving and decided to leave the other boys and join Murera who was browsing slightly away from the others. Mwashoti followed him and they both joined Murera. Later on, Quanza started rumbling and looking for Maktao, Enkesha and Murera. She wanted them all to move towards the Chyulu hills. The orphan herd followed Quanza leaving Jasiri, Ngasha and their wild behind. Murera was happy about this as she doesn’t like being in big herds as she fears being pushed.

Crested crane birds flew over Lima Lima and the other orphans browsing in the open grassland. Lima Lima heard the sound but could not see where the noise was coming from, she screamed and scared the keepers, then they saw the birds and relaxed. Alamaya and Ngasha ran to see what was happening, they made things worse as they started charging the bushes and winding up the other orphans. The keepers had a hard time trying to call the orphans back and calm the situation down. Enkesha and Maktao continued loudly trumpeting and kept running further and further into the bushes, the keepers were worried they would get lost. Lima Lima was the first to calm down and go back to the keepers. Now Limalima came to the rescued, she helped the keepers find the other orphans, most of them where resting in the shade, tired from all the excitement. There was lots of happy relieved rumbling when the keepers found the babies. Everything was back to normal, and the orphan herd continued browsing peacefully.

Ngasha pushed little Maktao, when Jasiri saw this, he moved quickly to stop Ngasha. Jasiri acted as the head boy, making sure everyone was safe and happy, he didn’t want any bullying especially from Ngasha. Jasiri is the one who keeps Ngasha in line when he is with the orphan herd. 

Some wild elephants appeared at the Umani springs while the orphan herd was there, drinking before they moved off to the Kenzili area, the orphans knew they had a long walk ahead of them, so they needed to drink before they left.  Lima Lima and Enkesha walked ahead to lead the orphans in the right direction. As they started walking away a huge crocodile walked across in front of them. Enkesha spotted this crocodile first and quickly turned around trumpeting, signalling to her friends that there was danger. They all listened and turned around, finding a safe way past to the Kenzili area. The orphans continued to browse along the way. They also encountered two clip springers that out the way onto the rocky lava.  The keepers and the orphans were wondering how this animal jumps over such sharp rocks.

A wild elephant family with tiny babies walked along the stockade fence line looking for water. They were thirsty after their long walk from the Chyulu area. The babies were very happy to find water in the trough by the stockades, they were splashing themselves with their tiny trunks, and they got help from their mothers. Zongoloni and Lima lima tricked Kiasa into going to say hello to one of the babies, but they babies were all under their mothers’ tummies. Kiasa found herself in a tricky situation, she touched one of the babies and it screamed. One of the bigger females pushed Kiasa away with her trunk, Kiasa turned back quickly before she got into more trouble. Quanza and Zongoloni moved to meet her halfway to calm her down and reassure her.

Faraja, Ngasha, Alamaya and Jasiri walked over and tried to lead the herd in a direction that none of the female orphans wanted to go, they didn’t succeed. Murera was struggling at the back, she started rumbling to get the others to slow down. Sonje and Enkesha who were in front, and they made sure the whole orphan herd walked slower.

Enkesha with the little boys, Maktao and Kiombo made their way through the bush browsing, they walked past where Ngasha, the big naughty bull, was hiding in the bushes. When Ngasha realised that Enkesha was there he came running out of the bushes and chased her. Enkesha took off very quickly and Kiombo ran to Sonje for protection. Zongoloni saw this happening and hid in the bushes, she went to get Jasiri, so he could put Ngasha in his place. Ngasha saw Jasiri and ran away. Zongoloni, Enkesha, and the two little boys made their way back to the orphan herd, they were now safe away from Ngasha.

Murera with Mwashoti didn’t join the herd, they kept on browsing along the Chyulu area but made sure that the rest of the herd would walk past them on their way home so that they would not be left behind.

Alamaya and Quanza had a disagreement. Alamaya was not giving Quanza any respect, she turned her head away from him so that he wouldn’t steal a stick she had in her mouth, instead he pushed her from behind. Quanza was shocked and decided to show him that she was a big strong girl and he needed to respect her.

Two wild bulls had been following the orphans for a couple of days, trying to get Sonje and Quanza to leave with them. The Keepers called Enkesha and Maktao over towards them so that Murera would follow. Murera enjoyed having some responsibility and went around trumpeting and trying to locate and call all the babies over to where the keepers were. Mwashoti who is Murera’s best friend appeared first, then the keepers saw Lima Lima and all the orphans making their way over to Murera making her very happy. Sonje arrived late with her boy Kiombo and without the wild bulls making it a full house again and the orphan herd was complete. Later the older boys Ngasha and Faraja, went to look for the wild bulls as they thought that they could use them as protection and security on their nights out but instead they found a herd of females. Ngasha touched one of the babies and then the females got angry, and they got chased away. The boys, especially Faraja, were very disappointed not to find their male friends.

Today Sonje had a visitor, a huge bull who came and pushed her out from the orphan herd. At first the keepers assumed that it was the famous Osama, but today it was another bull who wanted the company of some girls. Although he was only interested in Sonje and not in Zongoloni, Quanza, or Lima Lima. These girls ran away from the wild bull, leaving only Sonje with the bull, she knew that he had no bad intentions. She walked with him, and he put his trunk over her shoulders. He was pleading with Sonje to walk away with him, she accepted and followed him to the Kenzili area.

Kiombo tried to follow Sonje, but soon decided not to as he didn’t want to miss out on his milk bottles. Kiombo screamed for Quanza who quickly responded. Kiasa and Enkesha followed Quanza to go and get Kiombo, when he saw them coming, he went running over to join them. Murera and her good boy Mwashoti also came back from the Chyulu area and re-joined the orphan herd. Everybody walked back for their milk bottles, Maktao even got an extra bottle.

Many wild elephants showed up to the Umani hills and Kenzili area today. Quanza and Alamaya were playfighting and pushing each other around. They were in front and setting the pace for the little ones. Kiombo and Maktao began to copy what the bigger orphans were doing. The orphans got closer to a wild family, Faraja and Ngasha thought they were friendly and went to greet them, but two bulls came out and showed they were not friendly, Ngasha tried to reach out, but the bulls were not happy, Ngasha took off in the opposite direction. Faraja was welcomed by the wild herd; he was brave enough to walk with them to the Kenzili area.

Murera is always scared of wild elephants, even when she sees them with other orphans she always runs away.  She escaped with Mwashoti following her and they moved away to the other side of Umani hills.

Sonje and Lima lima joined the wild herd, they were normally the reason that wild bulls came to the orphan herd. Especially Lima Lima who is fond of having many boyfriends. Zongoloni later joined them with Kiasa following her. Maktao and Enkesha were not interested, they walked back to join Quanza.

At the waterhole the orphans had their midday bottles. Then Sonje being the leader, led the orphan herd off grazing. Murera and Mwashoti stayed back trying to decide whether to follow Sonje and the others or to go off in another direction on their own. They had their heads together in discussion when Quanza went back to persuade them to follow the rest of the orphan herd. Murera agreed with Quanza request, and they joined the others on their way to the kenze hills area. Whilst browsing in the area some bulls joined them, so Murera left fearing they would push her not knowing she was not strong enough. she walked to where the keepers were with Enkesha and Maktao leaving the wild bulls with Sonje and Lima Lima.

Faraja, Ngasha, and Jasiri had a disagreement today. Faraja was pleading with Ngasha to go with the wild bulls, but when Faraja reminded Ngasha that he had never made friends with wild herds Ngasha got upset and started a fight. Jasiri came to help Faraja so that Ngasha would not overwhelm him, Ngasha got upset that Jasiri had picked Faraja’s side, and went into hiding away from the others.  

The excitement that was experienced between wild elephants and orphans was very amazing and kept the keepers alert. Wild elephants came along and joined the orphans while they were in the forest. Quanza and Zongoloni welcomed them into the herd, but Murera and Mwashoti were not happy, they trumpeted warning the little babies that there were wild elephants around. Then the wild family trumpeted back.

Jasiri, Faraja and Alamaya did not like the wild family joining the herd and chased them away. Murera and Mwashoti moved away unhappy with the conflict, even Sonje moved back to the orphan herd leaving only Lima Lima with the wild family. She is always very friendly with wild herds and especially loves ones with tiny babies. Lima Lima was welcomed into the herd and in turn welcomed her friend Zongoloni. Maktao and Enkesha had a disagreement, Enkesha wanted to go and be with Lima Lima but Maktao had a different opinion, he just wanted to be with Enkesha. Maktao pushed Enkesha to go and be with Lima Lima, and to leave him alone to go back to be with Murera and Mwashoti, where he felt more comfortable and safer.

The orphans all came of their stockades, Kiombo walked to be with Sonje, they had a quick conversation then Sonje walked to the shade under a big tree, Kiombo followed. Climbing the Umani hills was the first thing the orphans did this morning. while the orphans were busy zig zagging their way to the top of the hills, Enkesha blew her trumpet. Then the keepers heard more trumpeting coming from the bushes. Enkesha had trumpeted because she had come across two buffaloes that were standing in the way and Enkesha was trying to scare them and move them off, it didn’t work they weren’t scared of her. Quanza and Murera decided to advise the rest of the herd to turn around and go back abandoning the trip up the hills because of the buffaloes. The Keepers called the orphans back and they walked in a line down to the mud bath for their bottles. The orphans happily played in the mud bath, but then Ngasha came and stared pushing the babies around in the water because he wanted the whole mud bath to himself. He forced all the babies that were uncomfortable with his presence to leave the mud bath. Ngasha was left to swim alone with only Jasiri.

There was a herd of buffaloes grazing around the mud bath today, they stayed there watching the keepers preparing the milk bottles for the orphans. Kiasa and Kiombo came running at top speed for their bottles. This startled the buffaloes and they all stopped eating to watch the elephants come running in for their bottles. The buffaloes didn’t want to run away because they were really enjoying the nice grass and the area around the mud bath was the only suitable place that had plenty of grass. Enkesha and Kiombo charged at them trumpeting and trying to chase them out the orphan’s territory. Mwashoti joined in as they obviously needed more help. The keepers warned the orphans to leave them alone and let then graze. The keepers brought some bales of hay from the hay store at the stockade to give to the buffaloes to help them with the lack of enough grass. The keepers and orphans left the buffaloes eating in peace and went all way to the Chyulus along the Kibwezi water pipeline. It was evidently very dry, as the rains have not come, and more animals would soon be struggling to find enough food.

Murera and Mwashoti went past the mud bath on the way home to cool off after a long hot day. Once they had finished wallowing, they went to find Sonje and Kiasa, assuming they would be together, but Kiasa was with Zongoloni. Zongoloni had taken Kiasa out with her, and they had not come back by the time the others were having their milk bottles back at the stockades. Zongoloni did not remind Kiasa to go back for her bottle, so Kiombo and Maktao got to share the extra bottle. 

Little boys Maktao and his friend Kiombo have been playing and tussling every morning. Their morning routine now includes pushing each other around. They began their game as normal this morning, but Sonje was standing close by and decided to protect her little friend Kiombo. Sonje tried to separate them and failed, Maktao was very happy with their game and Kiombo was also having fun and provoking Maktao. Enkesha tried her best to persuade Maktao to stop the fighting after she saw that he was getting a bit rough. Maktao eventually moved away with Enkesha and Kiombo walked to his friend Sonje.

Lima Lima walked to where Ngasha and Jasiri were standing, she picked up a stick then dropped it, Jasiri and Ngasha both came to get the same stick that Lima Lima had, and this started a big fight between the boys, tusks colliding was heard within bushes. Alamaya joined the herd with younger wild bulls around his age, they heard the fighting and went to see what was happening. Ngasha feared the wild bulls and ran away, but Jasiri thought that he had won the fight.