My ideal travelling companion is Ingrid, my missus. We have always loved travelling together. She doesn't mind roughing it and I suspect actually thrives on it. In fact, we get on better when we are travelling.

I love Canada. I first went there 15 years ago and I've been going back twice a year ever since. Canadians are great . . .Americans without the hype.

My first holiday memory is going to Cornwall when I was about four. My grandfather would drive us there in his old Austin and we'd stay in Mevagissey, with its steep hill leading down to the harbour. The Austin had a failing handbrake and we were always worried that one day we would end up in the harbour!

Travelling has taught me that we are incredibly lucky in the western world and that we take so much for granted. My experiences of poverty in Africa and South America still haunt me . . . the images of millions of people with young families living in unfathomable squalor.

I'm a bit of a culture vulture when I travel . . . I get bored lying on a beach all day. I love anything historical, as well as swimming and windsurfing. And I'm an obsessive reader . . . I take a rucksack of books and read them all from cover to cover.

Apart from Canada, other travel highlights would have to include the coastal drive on Highway 1 from LA to San Francisco in an open-top sports car with The Eagles at full volume. And a meal I had with Ingrid. . . when we dined on a pontoon in the middle of the Zambezi. We ate delicious food by candlelight, surrounded by the cries of the African bush.

'Tarrant on Top of the World: In Search of the Polar Bear' by Chris Tarrant, is published by Orion