Adventure Travel Show 2012: guest speakers Nick Hewer For me the best kind of adventure holiday is when you let yourself fall back on your own resources. When I visited Cuba I had only just landed and was immediately offered a room in someone's villa and people were incredibly kind. One family even took me to a baseball game. Old Havana is incredible, of course, but you can travel everywhere by bus and one time I hired a horse and a guide and trekked around the interior. But perhaps my most memorable experience was finding myself at a dance party in Santiago de Cuba surrounded by about 2,000 kids. Quite intimidating actually. But I hired two of the kids to look after me just in case and all was well. Nick Hewer is best-known for his role advising Lord Sugar on the hit television series The Apprentice and recently became the host of Channel 4"s Countdown. He also drove 9,000 miles from London to Ulan Bator in the annual Mongol Rally in a 25 year-old Renault 4. Nick Hewer at the Adventure Travel Show The Apprentice to Overland Adventurer (1.30 p.m-2.15 p.m. Sat Jan 28) Doug Scott "I've never really understood the words "No" and "Can't" and that's been a travel ticket to some amazing experiences. One year torrential rains in the Masai Mara meant the reserves were officially closed. Not to me I thought! With my wife Trish and two old friends we headed off in the Land Rover fording flooded valleys, wading through waist-deep waters in our best underwear with angry hippos watching just a few yards away. Two-legged or four, we all shared the same bits of land still above the waterline, witnessing cheetahs lazing in the sun and lions hunting at close range. It was unforgettable. The holiday Health and Safety Tsar would not have approved! Doug Scott C.B.E. was the first British climber to summit Everest in 1975, a feat he achieved from the South West Face, the most difficult route to the summit. He is regarded as one of the outstanding mountaineers of all time, having made more than 40 Himalayan expeditions mostly attempting new routes or unclimbed peaks. Doug Scott at the Adventure Travel Show Big Wall Climbing (4.30pm - 5.15pm Sat, Jan 28); The South West Face (11.30am - 12.15pm; Sun, Jan 29) Annabelle Bond Sun Valley, near where I live in Idaho, is fantastic. There's so much to do and yet it is so chilled. It is in the mountains and yet it is scorching hot. One summer some friends and I set off in shorts and T-shirts on an impromptu hike to the top of a nearby ridge. Then suddenly black clouds appeared from nowhere and giant hail balls began belting down on us with forked lightning so we had to ditch our underwired bras. And not of one of us had a long-sleeve top. It's always an adventure in the mountains and even with a quick hike out your back door the rules of preparation still apply. My friends still talk about ditching their bras to this day. Annabelle Bond is an adventurer, mountaineer, endurance runner and campaigner who climbed the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on all seven continents) in a record-breaking 360 days. Other feats include a 250kms self-supported endurance race across Namibia and a dog-sledging expedition to the North Pole. Annabelle Bond at the Adventure Travel Show Having Goals and Confronting Fear (10.30a.m. - 11.15a.m. Sun Jan 29) Benedict Allen I was once invited to circumnavigate Ramsey Island, off the Pembrokeshire Coast, by kayak but having once been marooned on a rock north of Australia wasn't so sure it was a good idea. However, there are no sharks or crocs there, I reasoned, and actually it turned out to be fab - lots of interesting currents that make you go backwards, and seals that pop up to have a good look at you, just when you are trying to time a run through tricky water. I loved being eye-to-eye with so many sea creatures, looking up at the towering cliffs and slipping in and out of forbidding caves. A great reminder of the riches to be had back home. Benedict Allen is one of Britain's most prominent explorers and the first "television adventurer." He is particularly known for solo wilderness journeys with no technological back-up following a period of training alone with a remote indigenous community. He has written 10 books and presented six BBC series. Benedict Allen at the Adventure Travel Show Up Against It (12.30 p.m. - 1.15 p.m. Charley Boorman If you like the outdoors, Canada is an incredible playground for everything from winter sports and riding snowmobiles to going out into the wilderness canoeing and camping. As a holiday destination it has absolutely everything but the experience that really stood out for me was mountain climbing. I went climbing with a true mountain hero, Barry Blanchard, which made it even more exciting. But you don't always have to be adrenaline pumping, there's so much history and culture to soak up and Vancouver Island is a beautiful place to go and relax by the Pacific Ocean. If it gets too relaxing you can always bomb it down a hill on a mountain bike or go skiing in Whistler. Charley Boorman is an actor and TV adventurer whose adventures on two wheels with Ewan McGregor were documented in the series Long Way Round and Long Way Down. His latest series Extreme Frontiers made with Producer/Director, Russ Malkin follows their 10,300 mile journey across Canada from Newfoundland to the Rockies. Charley Boorman at the Adventure Travel Show Show Me The Adventure (2.30pm-3.15pm, Sun Jan 29) Other speakers Edward Parker Edward Parker featured in the BBC1 TV series Harry's Arctic Heroes. He came up with the idea of helping wounded servicemen trek to the North Pole to raise money for armed forces charities after his nephew was severely injured in an IED blast on tour in Afghanistan. Edward Parker at the Adventure Travel Show Harry's Arctic Heroes - Walking With The Wounded North Pole Challenge (10.30 am-11.15am Sat Jan 28). Monty Halls Monty Halls is an explorer, TV presenter, marine biologist and ex-Royal Marine officer whose TV career began when he won Channel 4"s Superhuman competition in 2004. He has since presented numerous programmes and documentaries including The Great Barrier Reef now showing on BBC2. His new book, Monty Halls at the Adventure Travel Show The Great Barrier Reef (2.30 pm - 3.15pm Sat, Jan 28) Mark Carwardine Mark Carwardine is a conservationist, zoologist, BBC Radio 4 presenter, wildlife photographer and award-winning author of more than 50 books. He presented BBC2"s Last Chance to See with Stephen Fry and The Museum of Life, a six-part TV series about the Natural History Museum. Mark Carwardine at the Adventure Travel Show Mark Carwardine's Ultimate Wildlife Experiences (3.30pm - 4.15pm. Rhys Jones & Chris Parkes Rhys Jones is the youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits - the highest mountains on all seven continents - a feat he achieved when he was just 20. He now runs RJ7 Expeditions and is leading the February, 2012 Pilgrim Bandits Kilimanjaro trek climbing with a team including five forces amputees who have lost limbs in recent conflicts. Chris Parkes from 3 Rifles who lost a leg in an IED explosion in Afghanistan is joining the expedition in February with four other amputees. Rhys Jones & Chris Parkes at the Adventure Travel Show Pilgrim Bandits Operation Snowcap 2. 5.30pm-6 pm, Sat Jan 28 Doug Allan Doug Allan is a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning cameraman whose credits include such ground-breaking wildlife series as Life in the Freezer, Polar Bear Wildlife Special, The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Life. His most recent work includes Ocean Giants and Frozen Planet. He recently won a bar to the Polar Medal he first won in 1984. Doug Allan at the Adventure Travel Show Wilderness Camera (1.30 p.m-2.15 pm Sun Jan 29) Richard Madden Richard Madden is a Telegraph adventure travel writer and editor who has ghost written three books for Bear Grylls and presented adventure documentaries for the Discovery Channel. He recently spent six weeks as the relief manager of Greystoke Mahale safari lodge in the Mahale Mts on Lake Tanganyika, home to the world's largest population of wild chimpanzees. Richard Madden at the Adventure Travel Show Being Lord Greystoke (3.30pm-4.15pm.