Saa Nane House is a private house on the banks of the Athi River, about 50km south-east of Kibwezi, accessed from the main road through the small town of Mtito Andei. It sits on the west bank of the river, at an area of rocks and rapids, with the steep slope of the Yatta Plateau rising sharply on the other bank.

The DSWT were very kind to let us stop off there for a couple of days, primarily to allow us to spend a day going south to Voi, but also to see the river and its surroundings. The house is beautiful, classically colonial and the location is spectacular, with the river flowing past right below the veranda.

We spent a quiet evening and were up bright and early the next morning for the 70 or so kilometre drive down to Voi. Fortunately, we could drive down the main road to the Manyani Gate and then spend a couple of hours as a game drive down through the park to the DSWT stockade at Voi.

Things worked out really well, the animals were plentiful and the rugged, rocky, dry scenery was mesmerizing. I loved the rock formations that we passed by, but kept getting distracted by animals. We saw buffalo, waterbuck, impala, zebra, giraffe and some elephants on the drive. We were even lucky enough to see a group of lions, albeit at a bit of a distance on a rocky outcrop.

Still, we had come south to see the orphans at the “other” rehabilitation and release centre. We were taken to be introduced to them at the mud bath, as it was late morning by the time we arrived in the area. We were quickly introduced to the group and the did indeed seem very friendly right from the outset. I think they wanted us to join them in the mud, but we resisted as best we could.

We were reminded how to correctly greet an elephant – something we had indeed been taught on our first visit to Ithumba. When the elephant presents their trunk, exhale gently into it. They will catch the scent of you and then remember you. Don’t stick your fingers in their mouths! It is an acquired skill and will only work with DSWT raised orphans. Try it on any other elephant and you’ll probably lose fingers!

The Voi group were a little more boisterous and adventurous than the orphans we had met at Ithumba on our first trip. They constantly wanted us to play with them and cuddle up. It’s pretty hard to resist a six- or seven-year-old elephant who wants to put their trunk around your neck and is nearly as tall as you are. They did enjoy the mud though and made good use of a nearby fallen tree as a scratching post.

They were great company, but we only had a relatively short time to spend with them before we had to move on. I would add, however, that the combination of elephant saliva and red clay is impossible to get out of a linen shirt. Still an elephant-dyed shirt is a rare and wonderful thing to own.

After a very nice lunch at Voi Safari Lodge, sitting high above the waterhole with elephants drinking while we ate, we took full advantage of our time in the park to take a bit more of a game drive around the Voi area before heading back north the way we had arrived to return to Saa Nane before darkness fell.

The morning dawned fine and sunny, with bluer skies than we’d seen for a few days. Dixon went off to see if a couple of the DSWT rangers would walk along the river with us before it got too hot and we were soon moving slowly along the bank of the Athi, chasing kingfishers and spotting spoonbills and sacred ibises. The river is probably about 200m wide at Saa Nane, but with the dry season at its height, the flow was limited to a few fairly narrow channels.

Ironically, despite the desert like conditions evident all around us, there was more water in the river than we expected. Apparently there had been some rain to the north and the river was beginning to fill up slowly. Still, there were more islands and rocks than water and in a couple of places quite large crocodiles could be seen hauled out on rocks in the middle of the river.

As we walked along the sandy shore, there were plenty of signs that there were more crocodiles around than we could see, with their tell-tale tracks evident in several places. Our guards – well more like guides really – were unarmed and a little wary. I had been stalking a kingfisher for a couple of minutes, creeping closer to get the best possible photo, but gave up when the annoying creature decided to fly to a higher branch.

As a general rule, when you’re walking along a quiet riverbank in Africa, the last thing you want to do is walk around a large boulder and meet a hippo. However, if you do happen to find yourself in this awkward position, you want to make sure that you’re not between the hippo and the water.

Anyway, we did, and we weren’t, so everything was fine. The hippo glanced back at us and just moved a little further out into the river and settled down in slightly deeper water. Wow, they are big things though! Our poor guides were a bit non-plussed. They were keen to protect us if necessary, but just didn’t have the means to defend anybody, other than a walking stick that was not really going to stop a hippo if it decided to move in our direction.

We walked far enough north to see Tsavo Lodge on the other side of the river – by now above the rocks and rapids – but the sun was getting higher overhead and we turned back to the house to relax for the rest of the day.