When I heard that I would be walking with llamas, I pictured ancient Inca trails where I would be able to commune freely with the elements and engage with the roar of the wild amid spectacular plateaux and breathtaking vistas of snow-capped mountains. The reality was closer to Ambridge than the Andes.

The addition of two llamas - Wolfgang and Constanza - into the Snell family on Radio 4's The Archers is conclusive proof that these exotic South American beasts of burden have become as much at home in middle England as in Machu Picchu.

There's plenty of evidence that contact with animals can reduce stress, but I wasn't expecting a talking therapy. And yet, from the moment we were assigned our llama partners, a steady chatter began; the llama was a good listener and interjected from time to time with pertinent squeaks and snorts.

I would have been happier with a more dramatic and punishing landscape. Rural Northamptonshire is pretty enough, but leading a llama out of the path of a passing Mercedes doesn't quite conjure up the spirit of the Andes. I longed for aches, pains, hardships, and perhaps a dose of altitude sickness. Not everyone, of course, has such a masochistic approach to relaxation, and by the end the whole group was touched by llama karma.

· Llama trekking with Red Letter Days, £89, 0870 444 7000.