I had to collect Rog the Oil as his usual driver, Micky the Mighty Atom, was busy.

I collected Rog in my Series 3 Land Rover and there was some chuntering as he had a couple of goes to get his leg up, as there are no side steps. However, I like the Landy, having used them a lot in Africa.

I well recall one day, working in western Zimbabwe in a remote exploration camp. As the client was Shell, it was pretty luxurious and was in a spectacular setting, with lots of wildlife including elephant, leopard and buffalo. We had a government camp nearby with a few guys and, importantly, a bar. They were spraying to try to eradicate tsetse fly and the senior guy, called Dick, said he was going to the District Commissioners office in Binga, on the edge of Lake Kariba if I wanted to go. I did indeed, Kariba is a massive dam fed by the mighty Zambezi, so next morning we left in his ancient Series 2 Landy - good thing Rog didn’t see it.

A few bits fell off on the two hour drive, to be collected on the way back, but we got to Binga and I dropped Dick for his meeting and went off the explore. Zooming down the hill towards the lake, with Dick’s assistant next to me, the sharp bend at the bottom was approaching rapidly, especially when the brake pedal went straight to the floor. The assistant’s eyes were like saucers as he yelled “Pump” - which I did, slowing us enough to just get round the bend. Over lunch, at the local hotel, I mentioned to Dick that maybe the brakes could do with some attention, and he replied “what do you mean, I fixed them last week”. I thought I’d let him drive back, but luckily it was uphill!

• Fred Knobbit is a nature blogger. He grew up in the Pennines in Lancashire on the edge of an industrial town but is now safely in Cornwall. You can read his archive at www.bodminblogger.com