t 3 am on a Friday night I find myself sitting around the fire with a Tanzanian specialforces-trained anti-poaching game ranger, armed with his 375 H&H Magnum. I needed to get warm after a few hours of fitful sleep on the open back of a Land Cruiser. Its hard metal floor was not the most comfortable. Thankfully a Masai ranger had lent me his cloth which I had wrapped around myself to keep warm. We had left our camp at the Randilen Wildlife Management Area after a busy day, at 8 pm. The drive – “only 30 km”, said Kateko, the ranger from the Honeyguide Foundation – took just over three hours. We passed four young Masai men on the track, in the dark, robed in their bright red cloths and armed with their spears. They were off to find some girls, and a beer, evidently. It was a Friday night after all. Living within a wildlife management area with free-roaming elephants, lions and hyenas does not stop a teenager’s needs, it seems.
