Despite being surrounded by relentlessly flat desert for as far as the eye can see, Camp Bastion is a little bit of Britain plonked into Afghanistan.
 Troops have enjoyed some home comforts at Camp Bastion |
Four miles of perimeter fence surround what is the biggest British base in the country, with about 2,500 troops here at any one time.
Were it not for the searing heat and powdery Helmand dust that seems to cover everyone and everything, the troops of 3 Commando Brigade could almost be home on base in the UK.
There's Premiership football on the TV, CDs and DVDs for sale in the Naafi and in the three camp canteens, or galleys, there's egg, bacon and sausage for breakfast; fish and chips for lunch; and a nice curry for supper, among other tasty selections.
Oh, and endless cups of tea of course.
No complacency
Battles between the British and the Taleban have eased in intensity since the ferocious fighting of what was a very long, hot summer in Helmand province, but a recent newspaper article lampooning Camp Bastion as "Camp Do Nothing" has caused much bitterness here.
 Troops are frustrated by some press coverage of their tour |
True, some of the Royal Marine commandos are a little frustrated they are training in the gym and not "having a scrap" with the Taleban, as they put it.
But there are still skirmishes or "contacts" around the province, and the Marines know they cannot afford to be complacent.
On the camp's firing range, they constantly rehearse their drills, loosing off thousands of rounds of real ammunition in "live fire" exercises, designed to simulate as closely as possible the heat of real battle.
New Viking armoured fighting vehicles, brought here from the snows of Norway, blitz an imaginary enemy somewhere across the desert.
Thunderous explosions and purple smoke fill the air.
Such is Afghanistan's desperate poverty that, within seconds of the end of one of these deafening, terrifying exercises, dozens of Afghans race forward in their ragged clothes to collect the casings of spent bullets.
A kilogram of brass can apparently fetch as much as $7.
"At least we're helping the local economy," laughs one officer as the sun begins to set on another day at Camp Bastion and searing heat at last begins to cool.
'Fighting season'
"Where have the Taleban gone, and what's their strategy now?"
These are the questions playing constantly on the minds of Nato commanders, now that there's something of a lull in the fighting which has claimed so many British lives in the last few months.
 Troops constantly rehearse drills on the camp's firing range |
Is it that it's just coming to the end of the traditional "fighting season" in Afghanistan?
"That's a pretty rich suggestion," says Brigadier Jerry Thomas, commander of the UK Task Force, who is clearly not convinced his enemy has just melted away to put their feet up now winter is approaching.
Other officers speculate that perhaps the Taleban are "licking their wounds" after a series of battles with the British - mainly the Paras of 16 Air Assault Brigade - in which, it is claimed, hundreds were killed.
Because it is now the time for planting opium poppies, it is also suggested the Taleban are busy doing this, preferring to maintain Afghanistan's lethal drugs economy for a while rather than waging war.
Then again, perhaps the Taleban have just switched tactics, away from the conventional kinetic shooting matches, as British commanders call them, and towards suicide bombings - by definition, much harder to defend against - in places like the provincial capital, Lashkar Gar.
'Adrenalin and exhilaration'
At Bastion, I found one group of men who have endured some of the fiercest fighting since Korea, happy to take advantage of the lull to rest and recuperate.
They are the troops of A Company Group, 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
 |  The mortars came in very close and we were sometimes just in a trench |
In Nowzad, to the north of Helmand, they held out against wave after wave of Taleban attacks for 107 long days and nights, repelling a total of 149 assaults on their positions.
"There was loads of adrenalin and even exhilaration," admits Major Jon Swift.
He says: "The Taleban threw everything they had at us for more than three months - rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire from AK-47s and mortars.
"The mortars came in very close and we were sometimes just in a trench. One was actually blown off course by a gust of wind so that, luckily, it landed just a couple of feet away from our trench.
"Other times you heard the pop of it being fired, and then you would do a countdown in your head - '5,4,3,2,1'.
"If you're still counting, you're probably OK and counting your blessings, but then you feel guilty in case it's landed on someone else." Astonishingly, all of A Company Group lived to tell the tale.
Resources question
No-one doubts the bravery of the troops on the ground, but some have doubted whether the politicians back in London are giving them all the right resources.
| Asking for more means taking resources from other units around the world |
This question is almost as controversial as how and why British troops are still fighting in Afghanistan, five years after the Taleban were supposed to have been deposed.
But time and time again, when I ask British commanders if they have enough resources, they assure me that they have what they require "to do the job".
"Of course you always want more," says Major Mike McGinty, Apache squadron commander at Camp Bastion, and himself an Apache pilot who has seen plenty of action over the summer, firing hundreds of rounds and several missiles at the Taleban.
"But asking for more means taking resources from other units around the world. I have enough helicopters here, no doubt about it."
The Apache, he says, has been a "battle winner" against the Taleban - its Hellfire missiles and 30mm cannon are certainly devastating, and at about �50 million pounds a helicopter, it's an example of the asymmetry of this conflict in one of the poorest countries on earth.
 The Apache has been a "battle winner", says Maj McGinty |
Perhaps the Apache is just one more reason why the Taleban are having a rethink about their tactics after a summer in which both sides are mourning their losses.
In the headquarters at Camp Bastion, there is a simple but moving memorial to those British troops who have died here in Helmand Province alone.
Beneath a cross, a brass plaque lists their names.
Ominously, there is plenty of space left on the plaque for further inscriptions.
The fervent wish of all at Bastion is that the services of the engraver will not be called upon again.
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