Inspired by travel writer Ted Simon, Tony Robinson-Smith quit his job in Japan, returned home to England, and then set out once more with only a a knapsack, a map, and a dream to travel the world with both feel on the ground. Nearly six years later, he returned home having fulfilled his dream and then some.

Using his journals and memories as his primary sources, Robinson-Smith tells an exhilarating story that begins and ends in England. His adventures include hair-raising trips on African buses, a death-defying sail across the South Atlantic, a journey by boat along a tributary of the Amazon, and a cross-Canada cycling tour done the hard way, from east to west.

Robinson-Smith tells his gripping tale in an affable style with a sense of the comedic. His eye is trained more upon adventure than his own ruminations. With little idea of what he wants or will gain, he takes on the world solo, with only the notion of an approximate direction and a suspicion that enlightenment lies just over the horizon.

British Canadian travel writer Tony Robinson-Smith is the author of Back in 6 Years: A Journey Around the Planet Without Leaving the Surface, a memoir of his travels by sailboat, bicycle, merchant truck, bread van, and outrigger canoe through fifty-five countries and across three oceans. He also wrote The Dragon Run about the 578 km marathon he and his wife Nadya ran with ten college students and a stray dog across Bhutan to raise money to send local village kids to school. Tony has written travel tales for The Globe and Mail and Druk Air’s inflight magazine Tashi Delek. He is a regular contributor to the American online travel magazine Perceptive Travel. In 2018, Tony and Nadya spent three months in Papua New Guinea, paddling dugout canoes down the Sepik River and hiking in the highlands in search of elusive Birds-of-paradise.

Tony Robinson-Smith's profile page

"The story is riveting. The dude is fascinating and brave. And the writing is simply astonishing."

The Literary Addict

"Through thick and thin and near shipwrecks, Robinson-Smith's perseverance is astounding."

Cult of Travel

"He writes with an unforced quixotic sense of humour... Robinson-Smith’s word pictures are seductive."

<i>Montreal Review of Books</i>

"Read this for the amusing and sometimes terrifying experiences."

<i>Waterloo Record</i>

"The reader will applaud Robinson-Smith's tenacity. I would have given up and bought a ticket home. ... The pace never lets up."

<i>Globe and Mail</i>

"As an armchair tourist, I was enthralled by tales of places most of us will never visit. The locales Robinson-Smith explores and people he meets are fascinating."

A Bookworm’s World