We’re rather excited. The Adventure Travel Show at London’s Olympia is this weekend, and we’re looking forward to meeting some brilliantly inspirational travellers who’ll have us packing our rucksacks and heading off into the outback before you can say Humpybong (look it up).

But before the Travel Show has even had chance to take its boots off, we’ve been chatting to some of the big names who’ll be appearing this weekend. We asked them for their best and worst travel experiences. This is the first instalment of what they said, together with the times and locations you can catch them at the show:

Russ Malkin (Producer of adventure programmes including Long Way Down and Long Way Round)
Saturday 25th January – Adventure Auditorium
16.15 – 16.45

Best: Many, many best adventures, but I’d say taking on the Road of Bones with Ewan [McGregor] and Charley [Boorman] in Long Way Round. It was dangerous, challenging and remote, with a constant threat from bears and constant bombardment from mosquitoes – and the road has such a sad history. But I felt really alive.

Worst: It’s tricky isn’t it? Because the worst is often the best when you get back in one piece. Maybe getting stuck in an open boat filming By Any Means for BBC. The engine cut out in very precarious water in Vietnam! Fortunately I have a loud whistle.

Jonny Bealby – Wild Frontiers (Traveller and travel writer)
Saturday 25th January – Incredible Journeys Theatre
12.30 – 13.00

Best: Impossible to say, really – there have been so many: arriving in Cape Town having driven 10,000 miles across Africa on a motorbike. Reaching a high pass in the Hindu Kush that leads from Afghanistan and danger to Pakistan and safety. Arriving on the shores of the Caspian Sea knowing my 2,000 mile journey down the Silk Road by horse had been a success. But also enjoying a beer on the roof of a castle in Rajasthan, galloping across the Laikipia Plateau with zebra and giraffe, watching the Northern Lights from an ice hotel in Norway.

Worst: Best not go there…

Sean Conway (Endurance adventurer and first person to swim from Land’s End to John O’Groats)
Sunday 26th January – World of Adventure Theatre
14.00 -14.30

Best: Swimming with phosphorescence in the Irish Sea. I had no idea they were in such huge numbers in the UK. I thought you only got them in Thailand. Millions of sparkles would come off the end of my fingertips with each stroke. Each kick created an explosion of light. It was magical.

Worst: Getting run over in America while attempting my round the world cycle record attempt was hard. Both physically and mentally. I had given up a lot for that race and it was all taken away from me in one fell swoop by a reckless driver. Getting back on the proverbial horse has been hard, and completing the swim has certainly helped.

Paul Goldstein (Award-winning wildlife photographer)
Saturday 25th January – Adventure Auditorium
14:45 – 15:15

Best: Seeing a polar bear climbing up a sheer basalt rock face looking for guillemot eggs.

Worst: Spending time on a cruise ship.

Neil Henderson (Flying Kiwi)
Saturday 25th January – World of Adventure Theatre
12.30 – 13.00

Best: Has to be proposing to my wife on a deserted island in Tonga. Absolute paradise – and luckily she said yes!

Charlie McGrath (Safety whilst travelling – better off the beaten track?)
Saturday 25th January – World of Adventure Theatre
17.00 – 17.30

Best: Going to Antarctica
Worst: A budget holiday in Egypt

Hugo Turner (360 Expeditions)
Sunday 26th January – Incredible Journeys Theatre
13.15 – 13.45

Best: Travelling the east coast of Australia from Melbourne to Cairns by camper van – an unbelievable four months of fun.

Worst: Camping on a Pacific island in the middle of a hurricane.

Jo Bradshaw (360 Expeditions)
Saturday 25th January – World of Adventure
15.30 – 16.00

Best: Reaching the summit of Manaslu on 25th September 2013 with an amazing team.

Worst: Severe sunburn on Manaslu, the most painful (and easily preventable) experience ever!

Andy Torbet (Extreme diver)
Sunday 26th January – Adventure Auditorium
14.00 -14.30

Best: It’s an impossible question to answer but a recent one has been the exploration of a shipwreck in deep waters in the English Channel that no one knew about or had ever dived before.

Worst: There is also a lot of competition for the worst. Whilst in the military my tour down in the Falklands was much worse than other tours like Kososo or Iraq because it was unbelievably dull. And I did get pinned between the roof and floor of a tiny slot in a cave that had filled with water and had to exhale to reduce my chest size and squeeze through to safety.

Organise your adventure holiday to Australia

Got your travel juices flowing? Join us at the Adventure Travel Show this weekend (you can still get 40% off standard ticket prices when you use the discount voucher code here). And if you’re ready to organise your adventure holiday to Australia, start your planning here.

View more Adventure Travel Show travellers’ tales
View more Australian travellers’ tales
View the Global Grapevine blog