Maasai Adventures

Upper David Shepley spent two months of this past summer on a remote campsite in Tanzania with an organization called the Tanzania People and Wildlife Fund. He lived with the Maasai people and kept a journal in efforts to later share his experiences, and this is the first of his series of journal entries.

These entries explore Shepley’s cross-cultural experiences with the Maasai community, his participation in their cultural and tribal traditions, daring encounters with deadly local animals and observations about wildlife conservation and community development in the region.

Shepley has decided to share his accounts with the Exeter community. He believes that they will provide an exciting experiences that will educate the community in the rich and famous culture of the Maasai. He also hopes that his journal entries will encourage and inspire other Exonians to pursue similar opportunities.

I had a thrilling wildlife encounter during my last week at Noloholo. The visiting community service students from Jackson Hole and I decided to walk to Mount Ngahari, which was our last excursion of our Maasai adventure. The base of the rocky outcrop was about two miles from camp, so we left early in the morning while the savannah was still cool. By the time we arrived at the base of the mountain, thorny thickets had popped up all around our path creating a narrow passageway. As the 15 of us funneled into a narrow line, we suddenly noticed three cape buffalo, the most dangerous animal in all of Africa (commonly called “the widowmaker” as they have been reported to kill over 200 people a year). The buffalos were hidden behind a wall of thorns just 15 feet away from us! To be honest, I was terrified at the sight of the big, mud-covered bodies. Two separate buffalo attacks had already occured during the first month of my stay, so I was well aquainted with the damage they could do.

Fortunately, they were facing away from us, so moved away as quickly and quietly as we could in a calm manner. (But really, it was more like a frantic dash.) Buddy, the leader of the group and co-founder of TPW, was armed with a rifle and two escari, Maasai guards, surrounded the group with spears. Despite the protection, I knew that one gun and a couple of spears would not be able to stop three charging buffalos. Nonetheless, we continued trekking up the hill, passing another thicket, this time about 40 feet to our right. Our Maasai warriors and Buddy hadn’t noticed what I saw, and they kept marching our group towards the thorny ridge. I was trailing the group and had spotted the silhouette of a cape buffalo through the thicket. I immediately called it out and we hurried in the opposite direction as Buddy aimed his cocked 450 caliber rifle; the Maasai lowered the spears, anticipating a rush. Eventually, we made it to high ground and could breathe a sigh of relief. But, to be honest, I believe that we would very likely have been charged, and potentially gored, had I not seen the second Buffalo and warned the group that we were heading toward it!