Late one afternoon, biologist Iain Douglas Hamilton stopped by my tent and asked if I wanted to drive out and see some elephants before sunset. I asked him if he would like to take a walk instead. I knew that walking around the reserve could be risky, but surely we could at least climb the little hill just behind camp. He agreed, and we did. The view of the river from the top was magnificent. Just north of us was a larger hill known as Sleeping Elephant. I asked him if he had ever climbed that one. He told me he hadn't, but, with a mischievousi look in his eye, that we could walked toward Sleeping Elephant: two e middle-aged white men and a young Samburu man named Mwaniki. We walked only five minutes before we saw a female elephant with two babies ahead of us. We paused, admiring these noble creatures from a safe distance until they seemed to withdraw, and then we went on, unable to foresee that our lives were in danger. Seconds later, we looked up to see the female staring angrily at us from 70 meters(76 yards) away. Her ears were spread wide showing us her agitation. Trumpeting loudly, she charged