It was Paul’s idea to do what he called the Wamba circuit that was really a long drive passing through Wamba town to an area in the bush where we would find a suitable spot to camp and enjoy the vastness of the area, together with its wildlife.

The detail of how we got there escape me now but it was a very long drive from Nairobi past Isiolo and following the road to Marsabit National Park, turning west at Archer’s post on the way to Baragoi and, a while later we got to Wamba, a small town in Samburu County in central Kenya, located to the southwest of the Mathews Range, and northwest of the Samburu National Reserve.

We were thirsty when we got to Wamba and looked for a place where we could get a cold drink as we needed to fix some mechanical issues with the Land Rover. After driving through the town’s dusty roads under the late morning heat we found a place that had fridges and we went in hoping for a cold beer or, if not, even a cold soda could have done! The attendant took the order and came back with the drinks that were at about 40oC as there was no electricity and, as it is common in Africa, the fridges are used as cupboards! We were devastated and refused to drink them!

The waiter then offered us spiced tea and we accepted as at least it was meant to be a hot drink and it was water after all. What came, served in glasses, was probably the best cup of tea that I have ever drunk, an impression probably aided by the circumstances. It was very sweet and it tasted of true clove, cardamom and cinnamon. We drank lots of it and thanked (and tipped) the waiter for such a great tea and we were ready to go.

We drove on through a vast dry and extremely hot area with scattered rocky outcrops. As we had the whole area to ourselves, we chose one of the few places with some sizeable trees for shade and also with our “own” kopje that would also provide some additional shade, we estimated.

There we assembled our camp that consisted of the tents and a makeshift shade added to the Land Rover, as we were not planning to drive but to walk. As usual in these places, although one believes to be alone, this is far from true and about thirty minutes after we arrived we already had a “guard” of young Samburu boys standing by our camp with who we were, unfortunately, unable to communicate apart from offering them water and food! They came from an unseen manyatta nearby and they seemed happy to stay with us until just before sunset.

The following morning we decided to have “an English breakfast with a view” and, not without some difficulty, carried our fried and scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, fried tomatoes, toasts and butter! In addition we carried our thermoses of coffee and tea up “our” hill. Being hot helped to keep our food warm by the time we reached the top and we started eating once we found places to sit.

We had the most magnificent view of the immense bush country extending in all directions below us. After a few attempts, I managed a picture of the three of us with our breakfast that placed us, I am sure, among the early pioneers of the present day selfies!

We were about our second bite when a mighty blast made the kopje shiver and almost took the plates from our hands! Truly shell-shocked we all looked to see if the car had blown up but, luckily, it was still there although our Samburu guards were nowhere to be seen.

Then, we saw a column of dust and smoke about five hundred metres from us and, then another explosion and yet another! Still on the kopje we checked with the binoculars and saw that the bushes were moving! Incredulous, we looked again and realized that camouflaged tanks and other army vehicles were coming through the bush towards us!

Our first thought was that Somalia was invading Kenya and we went into a mild panic as the thought of being among the first prisoners of war did not appeal to us. However, as this would be unlikely, we decided to come down from our lookout and finish our now cold breakfast at camp to wait for developments with “a stiff upper lip” as were clearly outnumbered!

We did not have to wait long before a Kenya army Land Rover with soldiers in full combat gear arrived. Clearly they were surprised to find us there but they immediately realized that we were just campers, if a bit out of the ordinary for having chosen that particular area for our holiday!

They politely explained to us that we happened to be in an area that was used for joint Kenya-British army maneuvers and they just wanted to inform us of the situation and tell us that we could stay the night but it would be better for us to vacate the area next day as some live ammo was being used!

We stayed for the rest of the day surrounded by army trucks and infantry marches until it was time to leave, obviously, without having seen much of the area!

We returned to Nairobi through Rumuruti, Nyahururu and Nakuru and later we learnt that the land we camped in belonged to the Kenyan government and it had been used for military training by the Kenya Defence Forces and the British Army for many years.