CELEBRITY travel adventurer Charley Boorman stayed a lot closer to home on his latest bike ride — when he dropped in on staff at Travel Counsellors in Bolton.

The actor and renowned global biker was the “prize” in a competition aimed at travel agents nationwide.

Staff at the world’s largest home-based travel agency had made bookings via Explore and were entered into a final line-up of agents.

They were asked to write why they would like Charley to visit the Travel Counsellors’ head office in Churchgate, Bolton, and were delighted when they won.

Commercial director Kirsten Hughes, said: “We are all big fans of Charley and really share his passion for travel.

“Staff welcomed him to our head office and listened to his tales of exploration and adventure, as well as getting feedback about the places he has visited that we could pass onto our customers.”

Charley said:” It’s great to be in Bolton for the first time, although I often come up north to ride and to see friends.

“I will be talking to the Travel Counsellors about where I’ve been and the places they know about.”

During his visit he signed books, posed for photographs and met a selection of the company’s 200 head office support staff and specially chosen Travel Counsellors, some of whom travelled to Bolton on their motorcycles.

He also appeared on the company’s own web TV show, TCTV, broadcast from the company’s in-house TV studio, which is seen by 1,100 Travel Counsellors in six countries.

Charley recently completed his epic journey around the world for the BBC 2 show Ireland to Sydney — By Any Means.

He has also starred in Sky TV’s Race to Dakar and the BBC series Long Way Round and its sequel, Long Way Down, in which he travelled alongside actor Ewan McGregor on a 15,000-mile motorbike adventure from John O’Groats to Cape Town.

l The second By Any Means expedition will see Charley travelling from Sydney to Japan and will be screened on the BBC later this year.