An Adlington man, who has visited 107 countries and for much of his career acted as a professional safari guide, is to lead wildlife excursions on an Arctic cruise.

Cliff Jones, 70, of Castle House Lane, will be boarding the liner Ocean Majesty this week.

He will be joined by his wife Valerie for the 13-day cruise, touring the Norwegian fjords before entering the Arctic circle.

Cliff, who for many years worked for the BBC Natural History Unit, will lead 40 of the passengers on a whale watch mission in search of minke whales.

He will also deliver a series of lectures which draw from his vast experience of Africa and India, where he spent much of his career, and which led him to become a devoted conservationist and a proponent of 'sensitive' tourism.

One of Cliff's lectures, entitled 'Tigers, Temples and Trains', tells of his experiences on the Indian sub-continent, which include being attacked by a tiger and travelling through the Khyber Pass.

He said: "I was delighted to be asked on the cruise and am particularly looking forward to searching for whales.

"The tiger incident happened a few years ago in southern India when we were on elephants and we came across a Bengal tiger and her cub.

"The cub, which was as large as its mother, went for my elephant and scratched it down its trunk. The elephant reared up and I fell to the floor. I was scrambling on the floor for my camera equipment before someone told me to hurry up and get out of the way."

Cliff will also tell the 550 holidaymakers of finding a historic example of Lancastrian engineering in deepest India.

"I was about to begin a train journey through the Khyber Pass when I noticed that the steam engine had been manufactured in Newton-le-Willows in 1912.

"It was certainly passing the test of time as it handled the 35 tunnels but the line is so treacherous the 27-mile journey takes four and a half hours", he said.