Tanzania: Sleeping on a Rock

Submitted by Garrison Piel on the 2020 winter session program in Tanzania sponsored by the Department of  Entomology and Wildlife Ecology…

When I saw the view from this rock for the first time here in the Yaeda Valley, it took me two hours to come down. We pulled into the camp just before sunset, ran up to the rock, and I didn’t leave until it was pitch black. I left, threw my stuff in my tent, grabbed my sleeping pad and bag, and went back up on the rock to sleep. I spent all four nights at that campsite sleeping on the rock. I was only alone two of the nights. The second and third nights, I had friends up there with me. The first and last night however, it was just me and the stars.