We left our two young boys asleep in the lodge, looked after by a kind Samburu warrior called Innocent, and set off before breakfast with our guide. Early morning is the best time to walk, watching the bush awaken.
The views around Loisaba Lodge were long and spectacular, with Mount Kenya in the distance. The ground was open and dry, interspersed with low bushes and acacias that were home to an endless variety of birds whose names I kept forgetting. The rhythm of walking was peaceful, a great time to let the mind wander.
A thorn raking my leg had just brought me back into the present when a grunt loud enough to wake the rest of Africa froze us in our tracks. The bull came at us at with terrifying speed from no more than 50 yards away, its head down and its eyes locked on us. You could feel the ground shaking. Buffalo are big animals.
My wife Nickie and I are still arguing about what happened next. What is true is that you do go out of yourself and watch the event unfold almost as a spectator. I remember clearly thinking "This looks very bad. Something horrific is about to happen." Nickie tells me I said, "Oh shit, what do we do now?" But I can't believe I would say anything quite as helpful, so I maintain that she said it to me.
I remember her saying, "Climb a tree," as I turned to run. But I couldn't see any trees, so, like a courageous hunter-gatherer, I moved to stand behind the guide, knowing that he was armed with a .458 rifle. He moved sideways and, by this time, the buffalo bull was only 20 paces away. His gun went up and he fired. The animal veered away into the bushes without changing pace.
We stood and relaxed, not realising that it was the first time in 20 years that Kofi, our guide, had fired his gun as a protective measure. He showed us where the bull had lain in wait for us before charging and explained that it was a lone, old bull, which made it as dangerous an animal as exists in the bush.
He had shot the bull in the lung, and yet this enormous bullet had not even slowed it. The lodge's owner Peter Sylvester decided to call in a specialist buffalo hunter to help track and kill the animal now that it was wounded.
Kenya's answer to Crocodile Dundee duly appeared, introducing himself with a bonecrushing handshake and a chestful of scars. He and Peter set off with six trackers in the early afternoon. After three hours, they found the bull, or rather the bull charged them again. The seventh bullet brought it down, but not before sending Peter diving face first into a thorn bush.
The dead animal was brought back into camp and the meat was shared out between the Samburu, but not before I had spent some time looking at the enormous head and horns and pondering what might have been.
Peter was a thoughtful host and served us some of the fillet for dinner. Revenge was a bit tough and chewy to my taste, but it is a delicacy to the Samburu and the feasting in their camp went on into the night.
The practicals
Roxton Bailey Robinson Worldwide (01488 689702, www.roxtons.com) offers six nights at Loisaba Lodge from £2,603 per person including economy flights from London to Nairobi, charter flights from Nairobi to Loisada, all transfers, guides, conservation fees and all-inclusive accommodation.
