Five places that made me: Huw Kingston

THE YORKSHIRE DALES, ENGLAND

I went to university in Bradford, a city on the edge of the Dales. This chunk of northern England charms with its stone-built villages and welcoming pubs but challenges with its windswept fells, deep caves, rock faces and rivers. I spent way more time in the open air theatre here than in the university's enclosed lecture theatres. The Dales gave me a passion and concern for the outdoors that has measured my life since.

INDIA AND THE HIMALAYAS

I first went to India in 1984. Two weeks into a two-month trip I left after getting sick. The nadir was an overnight train to Lucknow sitting in a swirling pool from an overflowing toilet. I vowed to never return. After going back in 1987 for a three-month ski trip to the Indian Himalaya, I returned again and again, falling in love with those mountains. I also love the challenges and contradictions India throws up.

ITALY

I hadn't been to Italy for almost 20 years when I found myself pushing my bike through the Apennines in a week-long mountain bike race in 2011. One thing led to another and now I seem to be there for a month or two most years running a bike tour through Umbria, Tuscany and the Dolomites. Despite the physical effort involved, I never leave Italy lighter than when I arrived.

AUSTRALIA

From crimson rosellas darting through the snow gums and wombats shuffling past while skiing in the Snowies, to feeling powerless in a sea kayak among the huge tidal flows and absolute beauty of the Kimberley, to drinking good coffee at home in the NSW Southern Highlands, Australia is a country with so much to offer and so much to lose. I love the place I moved to 25 years ago but worry how quickly we have managed to destroy so much.

THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA

My 12-month journey circumnavigating the Mediterranean was touched endlessly by the power of human kindness. It was a tough physical journey, set against a background of a terrible human tragedy taking place; a tide of humanity trying to cross a sea that has no real tide. My 14,000-kilometre adventure was a fundraiser for Save the Children, specifically for children affected by that crisis. I visited some of these children in the refugee camps when I returned to Greece in June this year.

Huw Kingston's national speaking tour "A Mediterranean Odyssey" continues throughout this month. A new book, Mediterranean – A year around a charmed and troubled sea, will be published in November. See worldexpeditions.com