GIVE US A FLAVOUR OF A ROYAL TOUR

Following the Queen around the world is a unique experience. It's exciting, exhausting and complex.

Royal tours are often fast-moving and you may find yourself on two or three planes a day. I've been to some of the most exotic locations in the world such as the rainforests of Guyana, the wilderness of Kakadu in Australia and the Arctic fringe of Iqaluit in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Sometimes the tour will last for a few days, sometimes a couple of weeks but you always need to make certain that your cameras are in position, ready for any unforeseen event.

I remember the BBC news desk's clamour for pictures when, for example, a tomato was thrown at the Duke of Edinburgh in Tasmania in 2000 and when the Queen shed a tear as Lesley Garrett sang Happy Birthday to her in South Korea in 1999.

I developed a considerable skill at jumping off the press bus with my cameraman's tripod on my shoulder and racing ahead of the pack to grab the best spot.

I'd guard it like a lioness. It was sometimes rough, always tough, but mostly fun.

WHAT SORT OF TRAVELLER IS THE QUEEN?

I'm constantly amazed at the Queen's (and indeed the Duke's) stamina now they're both of a great age.

In recent years the pace has slowed with a later start and slightly fewer engagements each day but in Australia last year the 90-year-old Duke complained he wasn't being kept busy enough.

They both enjoy travel and revisiting old haunts. Of course, when you travel in style with your own bedroom on long-haul flights and no hassle with passport control, life is a little easier.

In general, though, they are undemanding travellers. The Queen likes her bottled mineral water on hand and menus are kept simple with no shellfish, in case of food poisoning.

MEMORABLE TRIPS AND WHY?

I remember flying over the Hindu Kush of Pakistan in a very small plane with the Duke of Edinburgh in 1997. As we soared past the huge, barren mountains after visiting a remote and desperately poor village, we were served the finest tea in bone china cups from a silver teapot.

Then there was the strange experience of watching the Queen and Duke being shown around Red Square in 1994.

Security had been so intense that every single Moscow resident had been cleared and the royals looked in vain for someone to meet and greet.

FAVOURITE MOMENTS?

Although every royal tour is planned to the minute and is expected to run like clockwork, nothing amuses the Queen more than when something goes wrong.

During a visit to Canada in 2000 they were half frozen when they were obliged to sit outside in sub-zero Winnipeg for a dancing display that seemed interminable.

When it finally ended, the Queen and Duke, looking rather grey with cold, were ushered on to a barge to be taken down river.

Halfway there, the barge spluttered and stalled, stranding them in deep water. Of course, they were quickly rescued and towed to safety but it's that sort of incident that they like to joke about afterwards.

ANY PLACES THE QUEEN HAD AN OBVIOUS AFFECTION FOR?

Of all the tours I've been on with the Queen, I've never seen her as animated as when we went to South Africa in 1995.

Her only other visit had been half-a-century earlier with her parents.

Now she'd come to see a new, post-apartheid country and she was given a huge welcome by a very excited Nelson Mandela.

As we stood on the deck of the Royal Yacht Britannia in Cape Town harbour, she seemed like a young girl exhilarated by her memories of the past and fired by the promise of South Africa's future.

There's no doubt that they intend to carry on travelling. "Being seen" is a vital part of the Queen's role.

Elizabeth: A Diamond Jubilee Portrait, by Jennie Bond (Carlton, £20) is out now.