Adventures of a 'Nomadine'

I will NEVER forget the day when I felt what it was REALLY like to camp.

I love camping. My family and I have spent many summer vacations camping in Greece at the seaside. The whole experience erases all the scars the busy city has been inflicting on you for the past year and makes you forget that you live in a modern polluted world.

However, sleeping in a tent in the middle of the Great Rift Valley, knowing that you are surrounded by some of the wildest animals while a thunderstorm above you gets ready to attack is something that pretty much changes your whole idea of camping.

My family and I travelled across Kenya for four days, spending each night at a different place. On the second night, after photographing lions, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, baboons... and all of those animals you only see on Animal Planet we were ready to hit our tents and have a good night sleep.

Mother Nature had a good surprise in store for us. Just before dawn I was awakened by sounds I couldn’t recognise. Some conversations, movements and dim bonfire lights were coming from outside the tent and I knew the camp guards were on their feet. But still there was a sound I could not identify - and that terrified me. For some reason I sensed trouble and felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t until the sun slowly came up when I could see that the sky was pouring showers and the rainy season was only welcoming us.

Rain never sounded so powerful, threatening and authoritative as it did from inside that tent! But never more soothing, calming and comforting at the same time either. My city apartment windows have never let it show its real strength and purity as that small tent did. I’ve never breathed a clearer air than the one the rain left behind in the Valley once it stopped. Although awaken by fear, I could only salute the new day with a smile.

It was then when I learned what it really meant to get in touch with nature, learn its true power and admire its beauty of many forms. I can now say that I have had the real camping experience... and I slept in the jungle as the lion slept that night.