Camping with the man eaters

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a long time. I was going to inform you all of my week long absence from the blogging world, but our internet cut out the day before I left. Sorry to leave you all hanging!

I have recently returned from a week-long camping expedition to Tsavo National Park. I have to say, I have done some camping in my days, but this was the most intense camping trip I have ever participated in. Before our departure we were briefed on all of the things that could happen, and all of the things that had happened to students on this expedition in the past. We were also informed of the history of the area and the animals in it. I had not known that Tsavo was the park where the famous man eating lions used to live, nor had I heard of the time when students were stalked by lions in this particular campsite, or when two campers were pulled out of their tents by lions in the night. Apparently, these lions are the descendants of the man eaters, and this was not comforting to me, even though everybody got out safely in both of the stories I just mentioned. I was not going to write this until I got back safely, of course. At least at this point you know that I was not eaten during my stay in the park. I also fortunately missed out on the scorpion stings that were for some reason quite common on other expeditions. The description we received on what a scorpion sting feels like was enough to make me check my sleeping bag at least three times before getting into it every night.

On the bright side, the camping trip was unbelievably awesome. The first day was spent setting up camp, which took quite a while with our heavy-duty expedition tents. The next day we set out for the Chyulu Hills, which proved to be quite the adventure. As we neared the hills, the road started to get overgrown. The closer we got, the more overgrown it became, until we found ourselves driving through thick yellow grass that grew higher than the top of the vehicles. As I stood in the hatch, my arms brushed up against the grass. I am continually impressed by these land rovers. Despite periodic stops when we got stuck in ditches or the grass grew too thick to see and the Kenya Wildlife Service rangers had to lead us through the grass, the ride was beautiful. When we finally reached our destination, we were at the foot of some of the highest hills, and climbed one for a lecture on environmental policy issues in the area as we overlooked the vast expanse of old volcanoes and green sloping hills. I don't think I have ever seen so many beautiful places in a row as I have this semester.

You can tell how big the hills actually are by how tiny the people look!