Love, Life and Elephants

Currently our whole life seems to evolve around elephants. In the course of my research for our new book, I am reading a beautiful book by Daphne Sheldrick, An African Lovestory, about Love, Life and Elephants. She was born and raised in Kenya. There she married two men who ran nature reserves, Bill Woodley and David Sheldrick and has a daughter with each of them. David, the well-known Tsavo warden turned Daphne’s life into an every day honeymoon. Their deep empathy and understanding, their years of observing Kenya’s rich variety of wildlife and their pioneering work in coming up with the right milk formula to feed orphaned baby elephants, influenced her life until this day. Daphne shares her amazing life with a host of orphans, her first love, Bushy, a liquid-eyed antelope;  the little dwarf mongoose; Gregory Peck and the majestic elephant Eleanor, with whom she shared more than forty years of great friendship. The tragedy of Davids early death inspired Daphne to the founding of the world-renowned David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Orphans’ Nursery in Nairobi National Park, where Daphne continues to live and work to this day. My special interest in elephants has reached my daughter. She surprised me with this Blue Elephant; speaking of “Love, Life and Elephants”.