Travel writer Jim Perrin is a regular contributor to "The Great Outdoors", "Climber" and "The Daily Telegraph". This volume collects the best of his recent work and covers venues as far apart as Garhwal and Montana, Kirgizstan and the High Arctic, Hungary and Cuba.

Introduction 1. Travels with a Harley: A 5,000-mile ride along America's west coast. 2. Arctic Fractals: Watching narwhal on the Brodeur Peninsula - The Franklin Graves on Beechey Island - Arctic Fractals 3. Ideals Gone West: travels around the legacy of the Left: Cuba: confronting the negative - Downtown Hungary - Kirgizstan: While everybody kneit to pray, the drifter did escape. 4. Tales of Four Cities: Unconquered Quebec - Varanasi in darkness and light - Propositioned in Portland - Seattle: At home with Jonathan Raban 5. Island Stories: Anne's still home, folks (P.E.I.) - Gathering Sheep on Caher Island 6. Way Out East: The Last Gaspe - Beyond the source of the Ganges - Fragments of Paradise 7. Encounters with Remarkable Creatures: The Wolf & the Goose - Whale-watching at Tadoussac - Drinking with Dervla - Befriending the Raven 8. Travels with The Flea: The Flea was Jim's pet Jack Russell - a constant companion on the hills