IT was a whirlwind visit to Kenya but enough to make me realise that the life of a soldier is not an easy one.

Of course, they travel the world and collect stamps in their passports, but there is the downside to all this.

Kenya was hot most of the time, but also wet. While holidaymakers have the ability to choose when they visit such places soldiers do not and they don't have the comforts of four-star hotels either.

I was lucky at Archers Post. I had a bed a few feet away from the streams that ran through the tent. It was on a stretcher in the Army ambulance but it was in the dry, nonetheless.

The training that went on in Kenya is vital to ensure the Army, and specifically the Infantry, remain fighting fit and ready for combat at all times. After all, that is why they are in the forces.

Whether they go to Afghanistan remains to be seen, but after Exercise Mono Prix, they will be ready for anything.