Rats, snakes, whitewater rafting and live ammunition were just some of the hazards faced by reporter Ben Rooth while on a 10-day adventure in Kenya.

Now safely back in the newsroom, the Lincolnshire Echo says the trip was an "eye-opening experience" from the moment he stepped off the plane, as he accompanied members of the Grenadier Guards on part of their training programme in the third-world country.

While there Ben visited an orphanage where some of the Guardsmen have been helping out, bringing food parcels and playing with the children.

He also took part in two days of SAS-led training, camping in jungle alongside "rats the size of dogs" before waking up at 6am to learn how to survive from the "fruits of the forest".

Ben was keen to take an active part, sampling sweet potatoes, raw sugar cane, and tomato fruit, which tasted like "a cross between a conventional passion fruit and a Kiwi fruit".

But he drew the line at taking part in a lesson on killing chickens, preferring just to watch as an instructor demonstrated the most humane way of killing the birds before several of the junior guardsman took their turn.

Ben said: "For the animal lovers among us, this prospect was too gloomy for words.

"It wasn't long before this tranquil woody glade looked like one of the more excessively violent scenes from a Quentin Tarantino movie."

Ben also found himself in the middle of a battle zone as the guards took on a fictitious enemy who had taken control of an airstrip which would give it a military advantage.

Using live ammuntition the guards worked together to reclaim the airstrip, and as smoke bombs, shells and mortars fell absolute precision was needed to ensure no one was killed or injured.

And before his trip ended, there was just time for some 'light relief' on a whitewater rapids course, where Ben was thrown in at the deep end.

He said: "To start with, the voyage was thoroughly enjoyable.

"It was the opportunity to view the lush foliage of the Kenyan countryside from another perspective. A four-foot long lizard even made a cameo appearance although the hippos and crocodiles remained shy.

"But 20 minutes into the journey, there was the unmistakable sound of gushing water.

"The boat might just as well have been named 'Lamb' cruising along a river called 'Slaughter'."

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