Living in a big city is great, but of course I occasionally have the desire to get away and explore the world. My most recent adventure was a camping trip to Kenya, where my home for a week was a tent in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro near Amboseli National Park—enough outside of the park to avoid vehicles and tourists—on the border of Tanzania and Kenya.

Being mostly a city dweller, camping in the bush was a bit outside of my comfort zone at first, but once I got over seeing large unknown bugs in my tent, and hearing lions roar at night, I was mostly good. I say “mostly” because my bush walks were somewhat disconcerting, even though I was with a Maasai guard named Benjamin who had a large spear and asked me to keep my voice down so we didn’t attract unwanted attention. When I asked him if he had ever used the spear to defend himself he gave me the of course body language, and said “yes.” I didn’t inquire further because we were about to enter a hyena den. Benjamin assured me the pack was out, and when I asked “when will they return?” He answered “at dusk.” I looked around and it was about dusk (see photos). So after poking around a rocky hyena den, we started our walk back to my tent.

Then it started raining. When I walked near some bushes, Benjamin urgently told me to keep away, and explained that buffalo (Nyati in Swahili) are very dangerous, and don’t like humans. Apparently they like to hide in bushes and attack when you walk by. I assure you I kept as far away from bushes as possible after that.

Then I asked about lions. Benjamin said they will avoid us unless they think we are following them. I asked: “How do we know if they think we are following them?” Can you guess what the answer was? Good thing one of us had a spear. 

– fayzez