Leigh McAdam is an outdoor travel and adventure addict. She is not a “hang off the cliff by your fingernails” sort of adventurer, at least for the most part, but she does love the thrill of the odd wildly epic day.
She has traveled extensively, having visited over 50 countries, always on a mission to do something active. Here’s a sampling: renting donkeys and a donkey driver to do the Alpa Mayo circuit in the Peruvian Andes, hiking around Mount Manaslu in Nepal, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, kayaking in HaLong Bay in Vietnam and cycling from Tanzania to Botswana. It gives her an excellent background to pass judgment about relative experiences in Canada.
Since 2009, she has been feeding her addiction for the outdoors and relating her adventures in her well-followed travel blog: HikeBikeTravel.com. She has built a large following of kindred spirits, vicarious travellers and increasingly, admirers of her fine photographic skills. She has broadened this platform through an expertise in social media including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google Plus.
Her appreciation for outdoor adventures grew with a move to Boulder, Colorado where she lived for 10 years. Now in Calgary, she’s happy to have the Rocky Mountains as a playground.
Charles Clapham is a retired mathematician who hikes for a hobby. He enjoys exploring to find ways to link short walks into a continuous stretch—from Horseshoe Bay to the Peace Arch, from Langdale to Sechelt, or from Swartz Bay to the Empress in Victoria. In this way, his little walks become great walks and he does his marathons 100 metres at a time. He did all the hikes in the book with his wife—alas, no more—and continues to explore on his own or with a companion.
Bruno Huber was born and raised in Zurich, Switzerland. He immigrated and settled in Canada, first in Nelson, BC and then in 1990 he moved to Granthams Landing, Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast near Vancouver, BC.
He is the winner of the Hohnharter Prize for Literature with a subsequent book of short stories published by Ullstein GmbH.
He was the owner of Coast Books in Gibsons from 1990 to 1995, and was also the owner of a French Restaurant in Vancouver’s Westend from 2010 to 2012.
He has been a film technician for 25 years.
You can read his blog at: brunospointofview.com
Jim Kerr was born in 1945 and was brought up in Kelowna, BC. He attended the University of British Columbia out of high school and dropped out after his first year to hitchhike through Europe and North Africa with his best friend, Blair Campbell.
Soon after, Jim returned to earn an arts degree in economics at UBC, after discovering his knack for quick calculations at currency-exchange booths over the course of his journey. He has lived in Vancouver, BC, ever since and enjoys golfing and travel during his retirement after a successful career as a partner in a national chartered accounting firm.
After many years boring his close friends and family with countless stories of his epic voyage, he committed to writing Meet Me in Cairo at their behest. Jim is married to his wife, Kelly, and has three daughters and one son. He currently spends a quarter of the year travelling around the world, often arranging adventure bike tours with friends to far-flung places such as Chile and Myanmar.
You can read more about Jim and his latest book here.
Gordon Bitney spent thirty years practicing law in Vancouver, Canada until he retired. He and his wife bought a villa in Provence and divided their time between there and Vancouver with their cats. The way of life in the village of Nyons inspired this book.
Illustrations by: Paul Dwillie
Newly retired baby boomers, Irene Butler and her husband, Rick, chose to escape routine and trek the globe for a year. Disciplined adventurers, they experienced all the joys and challenges of travel and yet still managed to stay within their planned budget.
Their goal: to travel to twelve countries over twelve months for the same cost as living at home. Irene recounts their adventures with an ironic sense of humour, all the while immersing her readers in culture and allowing them to share in their memorable experiences.
