Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage — Wheelchair Accessibility Review

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage (Nairobi Nursery)

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust runs an elephant nursery inside Nairobi National Park. It opens to the public for one hour a day. Orphaned elephant calves come out for milk bottles and a mud bath while a keeper explains each one’s rescue.

I visited on my three-wheel mobility scooter with a guide from Accessible Travel Kenya.

At a glance

Steps: none on the route from the parking lot to the viewing area.
Surfaces: smooth gravel parking lot, then packed red murram and flagstone.
Narrowest point: 36 inches (91 cm).
Grades: gentle.
Viewing: standing-room rope cordon. No platform, no seating, no reserved space.
Early entry: staff let people with disabilities in ahead of the crowd.
Hours: 11:00 a.m. to noon, one hour only.

Booking and fees

Entry is by advance booking, arranged by email with the Trust’s Nairobi office. The Trust does not accept reservations made through Viator, GetYourGuide, Tripadvisor or similar sites. If you book through a tour operator, ask them to forward the confirmation email from the Trust.

If you did not book ahead, ask your guide. Tour guides can sometimes get same-day tickets, or work with other groups that have space to find a spot at the last minute.

Two separate payments:

Sheldrick entry donation: US$20 per adult (12 and over), US$5 per child. Cash on arrival. Not prepaid.
Kenya Wildlife Service park fee: the nursery is inside Nairobi National Park, so KWS charges everyone entering the gate. Non-resident adults are US$80 under the October 2025 fee schedule, plus a vehicle charge. Pay online in advance through the eCitizen KWS portal.

The hour cannot be extended for late arrivals. The Trust asks guests to arrive by 10:30.

Getting there

Entry is through the KWS Mbagathi Gate (also signed as the KWS Workshop Gate) on Magadi Road. From downtown Nairobi it is 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic, and 10 to 15 minutes from Karen.

Your driver and vehicle also need paid park entry to come through the gate. Without it, drivers drop passengers at the gate and the Trust runs a shuttle to the nursery between 10:15 and 11:30. The shuttle is a standard van and will not work for a power wheelchair or a scooter that does not disassemble. Arrange a vehicle that is paid through the gate so you are driven all the way in.

The parking lot at the nursery is gravel, well compacted and smooth.

The route in

The route runs a few hundred metres and has no steps.

The first stretch is a wide packed-earth track past the wooden stable buildings. It is firm in the middle and looser at the edges, with shallow ruts. My scooter handled it. A lightweight travel scooter with small front castors would feel the ruts.

A wide, packed red-earth track running beside a row of weathered wooden stable buildings. A guide in a green shirt walks ahead and a person on a red mobility scooter rolls along the same track. — The track past the stables.

Next is a courtyard paved in irregular flagstone. It is level, but some stones sit with raised lips. The path narrows between potted plants.

A level courtyard paved in irregular flagstone, lined on both sides with potted palms and shrubs. Visitors walk ahead in single file and a person on a red mobility scooter follows. — The flagstone courtyard.

The last section is a flagstone path edged with vertical log posts, running downhill to the viewing clearing. It measures 36 inches (91 cm) between the logs. My scooter is 68 cm wide. There is no room to pass anyone and no room to correct a bad line.

A narrow flagstone path edged on both sides with short vertical log posts set into dense planting, running downhill. A person on a red mobility scooter takes up nearly the full width. — The log-edged path. 36 inches wide.

The viewing hour

The viewing area is an open clearing of red dirt with a single rope cordon along one side. The elephants come out to a mud wallow beyond it. There is no platform, no seating, and no marked accessible viewing position.

Staff let people with disabilities through ahead of the general queue. This is not advertised. I did not email ahead about it, and it was offered without my asking. I would still tell the Nairobi office you use a wheelchair or scooter when you book.

By 11:00 the crowd was several people deep at the rope. From a seated height that blocks the view completely. Other visitors stepped aside and let me come forward to the fence, and I could see the wallow for most of the hour.

The view from a seated position several rows back in a dense standing crowd on red dirt. Visitors' backs fill most of the frame, with only treetops and a few keepers' hats visible above them. — Seated height, several rows back.

The view from a seated position at the front, looking across an open red dirt clearing. Keepers in green coats, a rhino and a zebra are visible beyond a single rope cordon. — At the rope.

Arrive early. Be at the gate by 10:00 if you can. Early entry only helps if you are there in time to use it.

What you see

The herd comes out in groups for bottles, then moves into the wallow. Keepers describe how each orphan was found.

A line of orphaned elephants walking along a bank of red earth beneath acacia trees. A small calf walks between two larger juveniles. — Calves of different ages share the nursery herd.

Two young elephants facing each other on red earth with trunks entwined and ears spread wide. More of the herd stands behind them. — Two calves wrestling.

The nursery also raises orphaned rhinos. Tytan, a young black rhino, was out at the far end with Notty, a zebra he lives alongside.

A young black rhino standing on a mound of red earth. A keeper in a green coat watches from the left, a zebra grazes to the right, and visitors stand behind a rope cordon in the background. — Tytan at the far end of the enclosure.

A zebra standing side-on beside a metal feed barrel, chewing a leafy green branch, with bush and acacia trees behind. — Notty.

Maxwell, the Trust’s blind black rhino, is not part of the public hour. He is only seen on the separate private foster-parent visit.

Practical notes

The clearing has no shade. Bring a hat.
The red murram gets into scooter wheel bearings.
March to April and October to December turn the murram to mud. I would not take a scooter on this route in heavy rain.
No refreshments on site. Bring water.
No public Wi-Fi.
Photography is for personal use only.
A merchandise table opens after the mud bath, on the same level surface. Adoptions can be arranged there.
You pay the full park fee either way, so a game drive in Nairobi National Park afterwards is worth doing. The Giraffe Centre is nearby.

Bottom line

The route in is step-free with firm surfaces and smooth gravel parking, and staff let people with disabilities in ahead of the crowd. There is no accessible viewing position at the rope, so arrive early and ask a keeper where to position.

Fees and booking rules change. Confirm current details on the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Nairobi Nursery visiting page before you travel.