David Spear, explains why he loves to travel and the types of trekking holidays he has been lucky to participate in.

People sometimes ask me why I travel - I explain to them that it is in my blood.  My two great grandfathers opened up different parts of the world in their time, just as I have been amongst the first to walk certain hills and valleys across the world in my time.  There is a fire within me, and I possess a yen to travel and visit unknown places and countries.  My first journey of exploration began at the tender age of 21, when I chucked in my job and travelled from London to Delhi on £80. It was an utterly amazing experience, and ignited my desire for travelling.

At a later date, I was very lucky to be included in the first ascent of Nanoy Tapui.  This is a mountain that has a flat top, vertical sides and rests among the thick, dense jungle.  I have also been fortunate enough to have trekked up the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Lost World’ - Mount Roraima in Venezuela *. This mountain is made of some of the oldest rock on the planet, and the ecology on the top is so isolated from the bottom that it is a completely different ecosystem.  Unlike Arthur Conan Doyle’s vision, at the top of the food chain are not dinosaurs, but blind frogs, a species who have given up on their eyes because they don’t need them!  Though dinosaurs probably make for a better read.