A Night Patrol To Remember

"It was still well into the 80's when we left the confines of the camp at just past 2000; humid, sticky and dusty, we arrived at the local dump after taking a wrong turn. The mix of burning trash, rot and waste was overwhelming at first.

Backtracking, we headed back to the road. While stopped at the roadside, I watched the lightning playing "tag" as it leapt back and forth amongst the gathering stormclouds to the south.

We moved onward into the darkness and dust. Stopping in an area inhabited by a family of camels grazing in the darkness of the African evening. Their pungent aroma still fresh when we entered their little alcove. The large male bellowed and snorted in disgust at having his meal interrupted and called out to his family to follow. It was silent once again except for the occasional whine of a mosquito near the ear, a few honest crickets or the rattle of a weapon sling against a rifle.

All in all, it was a patrol that assaulted and overloaded the senses; both visual and nasal, and one that I will not forget anytime soon." - The Lion