The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
MY LIFE IN TRAVEL
The marine biologist and TV adventurer talks commuting by kayak, diving with bull sharks and growing up on Malta
MY FAVOURITE HOTEL IS SAL SALIS, IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA – an eco-resort nestled into the dunes of the Cape Range National Park. It has just 15 tents, right on the edge of the coast fringing Ningaloo Reef. This is where Pippa Middleton spent her honeymoon, and I can see why; it’s like a balm to the soul. I woke every morning to vast skies, the crashing ocean and amazingly wild scenery.
THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS ARE OTHERWORLDLY. I’ve been several times, and when you step out of the plane you get this scent of vegetation, hot rock and ocean breeze. The landscape is rugged and volcanic, the wildlife beautiful, with so many endemic species. I spent three months there with my wife, Tamsyn, and our daughters Isla, who is seven, and Molly, three; when Isla saw her first green turtle while snorkelling, I knew she’d caught my travel bug.
MY MOST DANGEROUS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE WAS ON A DIVE during my first trip to the Galapagos in 2001. It’s famous for its varying ocean temperatures and localised currents, and I got swept into a whirlpool. It threw me around like a rag doll and I was almost out of air, but thankfully it passed quickly.
I’VE HAD A FEW NEAR MISSES IN THE OCEAN OVER THE YEARS.
I once went diving with bull sharks at Protea Banks, South Africa, and they have a track record for being aggressive. Their body posture and the way they were swimming made me nervous, and we were a long way offshore in big swells, which made it difficult getting back on the boat. I was glad to get out of there.
WHEN I WAS THREE, I LIVED IN VALLETTA on Malta, where my dad was posted with the RAF. That’s where I developed my love of the ocean. I remember a little rocky bay close to our house, where I jumped off a small cliff into the clear Mediterranean waters with my older sister. Even as a small boy, I could swim. I loved it.
WE LIVED IN PADSTOW WHEN WE RETURNED FROM MALTA and spent many of our family holidays camping close to home in Cornwall. It was lovely – except for the flared tempers while pitching our tents!
I’M HAPPIEST AT HOME IN DARTMOUTH and my heart lifts every time I drive back there after a trip. I feel extremely lucky to be just five minutes from the sea. We live on a smallholding where we keep a couple of goats and geese and chickens. It’s paradise.
I HAVE A DREAM COMMUTE to be honest. The office of my production company, Seadog TV & Film, is in Totnes, Devon, and to get there I either kayak up the River Dart or mountain-bike through the forest, which is bliss.
THE UK IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO EXPLORE and my next purchase will be a camper van so I can take my family to Dartmoor and Cornwall, then further in the holidays. The west coast of Scotland is somewhere I’d like to revisit. There are miles of white sand beaches and wildlife such as red deer and golden eagles.
I AM A TERRIBLE OVER-PACKER.
I look at things and think, “Oh I might need that, just in case”. When I went to the Dominican Republic recently, I took two fleeces and it was 82F.
MY FAVOURITE CITY IS BRISTOL because it’s a great creative hub and within easy access of so many wonderful things – the south coast of Wales, Dartmoor and the north coast of Devon for some great surfing.
THE MOST OVERRATED PLACE I’VE VISITED IS BIMINI in the Bahamas, where I made a film about Atlantic spotted dolphins. I felt like a walking ATM – we got ripped off in shops, in restaurants, everywhere. No one made us feel welcome – it seemed to be all about how much money they could get out of us.
MORE PEOPLE SHOULD GO ON HOLIDAY TO DONEGAL on the west coast of Ireland. It’s a wild, wild place on the edge of the ocean, like a small New Zealand. The people in Ireland are famously – and correctly – regarded as some of the most friendly in the world. It’s a magical place.
MY MOST ASTOUNDING ANIMAL ENCOUNTER WAS ON RAINE ISLAND on the northern Great Barrier Reef. It has the largest green turtle rookery in the world, and when I visited to film my Great Barrier Reef documentary for BBC Two in 2012, 26,000 green turtles came up the beach and back down in one night.
I’VE BEEN TO SOME VERY REMOTE SPOTS on my travels. I filmed a series called Lost Worlds for the Discovery channel, finding places film crews and scientists had never been. We trekked through jungles in Guyana and Borneo. It was amazing, but when I got back I thought, “I think I’m going to make a series about boutique hotels next – I’m done!”
I once got swept into a whirlpool in the Galapagos. It threw me around like a rag doll
Monty Halls’s new book, My Family and the Galapagos (Headline, £20), is out now.