A Night in the Forest

‘Let’s sleep in the forest tonight!’ With nothing but this on our minds we excitedly left the Shimoni house on Wednesday evening, 28th of November. The camp-site was quickly furnished with a camp-fire a three-person tent and mosquito nets because most of us preferred to sleep outside- under the open sky!

Volunteer chilling by the fire

After eating a delicious dinner cooked over the fire that included sausages we set out for a night-walk. The nearly full moon illuminated our way among the trees and in its silvery light we spotted some truly fascinating animals. Along with sleeping Colobus, we saw a couple of Greater and Dwarf Galagos (more commonly known as Bush babies; they are the cutest things ever!), a Cape Wolf Snake and a few Suni. However the best sighting of the night was a shadow darting over a branch right above the road which turned out to be an African Palm Civet!

More volunteers and more chilling

On our return to the camp-site we settled down around the fire and enjoyed roasting marshmallows and telling Maasai horror stories until late in the night, before laying down under the trees to sleep.

The camp-site in all its glory!

Spending a whole night in the forest was an amazing experience and I am really happy that we had the chance to do it. It is such a cool feeling to be out there at night, among all those shy animals, and hearing them darting around whilst trying to fall asleep. And it’s the most beautiful thing when you wake up early in the morning and the first thing you see is a group of Colobus and Sykes monkeys playing in the trees right above you!

Franziska Paukert – Combination Volunteer

A Night in the Forest