Try and keep up in Kenya

Wildfitness, a health and fitness holiday, is designed to put the wild streak back into our lives.

Based at Watamu, one of the world's top beach resorts, there's sand for barefoot running, a jungle for circuits, a dojo for boxing and kettle bells, and screeching birds and monkeys for company.

Other Wildfitties include a pedantic lawyer, 28, a full-time mum, 50, a stressed-out London businessman, 37, a 30-year-old PR executive, a rotund financial consultant, 38, and Viani, a verbose American anxious to get in shape in time for his fortieth.

Development consultant Viani Gonzalez has signed up for a seven-week back-to-back course to get his once 250lb (17 stone 12lb) body honed. He has already lost three stone in weight, the result of a trip to Wildfitness last year, and has three to go.

Wildfitness was developed in 2001 by Tara Wood, a tanned, affable biology graduate from Oxford who grew up in Watamu. The threat of losing the family home led her to launch an exercise holiday with a fitness philosophy.

The idea is to eat and exercise like a human in harmony with nature.

Things start gently with a game of volleyball on the beach and a restorative drink made from baby coconuts.

Day two: we run 5k through a village in scorching 73 degree African heat. Viani leads the way, and Sheila, the financial consultant among us, is walking - fast.

"Stay with it," shouts coach Joash Akwiry Matakwa, a national 400m athlete.

The daily timetable goes like this: rise, 6.15am; rolling, 6.30am; boxing, 9.30am; seminar, 10.30am; hunter-gather running drills on the beach, 3.30pm; volleyball, 4pm; jungle circuits, 8pm; supper, 9pm; bed.

Hours between are filled with heated talk about the challenges and the explosive topic of food. "Ugh, so green," sighs Viani sitting down to a plate of broccoli, salad, raw fish and a glass of fresh cucumber juice.

We learn that intense bursts of exercise are more effective than long workouts, and the importance of sleep - when weight is shed.

Cue the stressed-out businessman who bails on day three to sleep and - dah dah - emerges the following morning looking svelte. Unbelievable!

By day eight, I'm fitter, thinner and very pleased.

I love Baraka House, Tara's stunning family home and decide to extend my nine days to three-and-a-half weeks.

Watamu boasts a coral reef rich with marine life - more than 600 species of fish have been recorded in Watamu Marine National Park - and endangered sea turtles even nest on the beach.

Nearby you can go deep-sea fishing on a 30ft game boat or visit Lamu, a beautiful Arabic fishing port.

Day 12, and trainers Jess, Gareth and Joash crank up the intensity.

We run the 5k route again and this time Sheila run-walks. Her determination to lose weight has won her a fan club whose members jog the last leg alongside her for support. There are emotional scenes where she cries in disbelief at her own abilities.

Lactic lift-off - high intensity running - is impossibly tough but rewarding.

Sheila runs her first 600 metres non- stop. Others pelt so hard they are coughing up phlegm in the bushes.

Day 24: measurement day: one woman has lost 20 per cent fat in total and is over the moon, and another has shed more than 3cm from her waist.

My turn: I'm looking more slender with a petite waist but my stomach measurement has gone up by 2cm.

On the plane I tell a Canadian I've exercised hunter-gatherer style."You can tell, you're glowing," he says.

Details

THE FLIGHT
Kenya Airways flies from Heathrow
to Mombasa from £466 return,
www.kenya-airways.com

THE COURSE
A nine-day kick-start course with Wildfitness costs from £1,790pp full-board with activities and transfers (next one 6 February), a two-week revitalise course from £2,290pp, and a three-and-a-half week transformation from £3,590, www.wildfitness.com.
www.fco.gov.uk
www.tourism.go.ke