Levison Wood brings Art of Exploration show to Harrogate Royal Theatre

“It was scooter versus taxi,” he says, somewhat deadpan.

This is during a Zoom call at the end of September and, clearly, a broken leg is nothing he can’t handle.

His live tour, The Art of Exploration, starts at Harrogate’s Royal Hall on Wednesday, October 12 and he will be telling the audience about scenarios which have been much more testing.

Levison has trekked thousands of miles in all kinds of environments, charted in his numerous books and TV series, including Walking The Nile, Arabia With Levison Wood and Walking With Elephants.

He will share some of the lessons he has learned on his travels, Army career and his work such as photo-journalism assignments in the Congo and Nepal.

Audiences can look forward to anecdotes and glimpse at the world through Levison’s eyes thanks to his own photography and video footage.

Joining him on stage to host the evening will be documentary filmmaker, writer and TV presenter Alex Bescoby, whose debut book The Last Overland was released last month with an accompanying series on All4.

Levison, 40, who lives in London but was based for two years at Catterick, North Yorkshire, during his time in the Army, says: “I was stuck in lockdown with a lot of time on my hands. So I tried to make use of that by collecting all the lessons that I've learned from my trips and travels and people I've met people, people that have inspired me along the way, and I wrote this book called The Art of Exploration.

“So it made sense to turn that into a stage show and it's really the biggest lessons that I learned, but things that are valid and applicable to people in their daily lives - not just explorers, it's lessons that are useful for people, perhaps, who are leaving school or retiring or career transitioning. So it's a mixture of inspirational stuff, a bit of philosophy, but also some pretty practical lessons too.”

He adds: “One of the chapters in the book is Backing Yourself With A Smile. It's about maintaining enthusiasm and a sort of stoicism when the going gets tough. And, you know, I think we're all facing fairly tough times now.

“I'm kind of drawing on my experiences, not just my expeditions, but also from my time in the Army in some of the most challenging environments around the world, so I'll be talking a bit about my time in Afghanistan.

“I was recently in Ukraine, and I've been around the Middle East, places like Syria and Iraq, so there'll be anecdotes and stories from those sorts of places, but also lessons and some of the wisdom that I've learned from the people and communities around the world that often don't get the right sort of spotlight shone on them.

“And often it's in places that are in the news for all the wrong reasons that you can learn some very valuable lessons.”

One place that certainly has been in the news, though, is Ukraine. Shortly after Russia invaded, Levison travelled there to make a special Dispatches for Channel 4, an experience he describes as “eye-opening”.

“Particularly as a former British soldier myself, to be out there, it was very different to war zones I’ve been in before. It’s one thing being in the desert, up against a few blokes with AK-47s, it’s very different when you're on the receiving end of Scud missiles and things like that. I’d never been in an environment like that, where you’ve air raid sirens going off every night so that had its moments but also I wanted to tell the story of the ordinary Ukrainians who volunteered to fight.”

Levison spent a number of years as a Regular Officer in the British Parachute Regiment, when he served in Afghanistan fighting against Taliban insurgents in Helmand and Kandahar. He currently serves as a reservist with the rank of Major.

But is facing uncomfortable situations of any kind with stoicism really something that can be developed, or is it innate in certain people? “I think it's something you learn, something you can nurture and develop, often through experience,” he says, later adding with a laugh: “I’m sitting here with a broken leg right now because I came off a motorbike in Greece last week.

“But in every situation, no matter how disastrous it might seem at first glance, there's always an element of positivity that can come up if you look hard enough. And I found that through all my travels and where things have gone wrong - I've had some pretty nasty accidents along the way, and I've almost come a cropper several times - in hindsight if you piece it all together, there's always something good that's come out of it. So it's having that trust in the process and having a bit of faith in the universe really.”

He has worked and travelled in more than 100 countries. It’s clear he is in wonder of the world and its diversity - but how does he feel about all the air travel, given its effects on the planet through climate change?

While he has considered it a lot, he says that “flying is small fry compared to some of the other issues at stake, it's just that people like to point the finger at the travel industry, which actually, it has pretty minor implications when you compare it to things like the meat industry, you know, mass agriculture." He also doesn’t have children, so says he doesn’t contribute climate change in that way.

Ultimately, however he gets there, Levison Wood will likely keep on exploring the world. Next stop, Harrogate.

- Tickets are on sale now from nothird.co.uk