This is the story of a remarkable journey of 10,000 kilometres across Europe from the western most tip in Cape Finistere to Istanbul. The author completed this adventure entirely on foot: refusing any mechanical contrivance - car, bicycle, armoured truck (in Eastern Europe) or escalator (in Vienna). It took him 500 days crossing Europe's uplands from the Cantabrian mountains, the Pyrenees, Sevenne, Alps, the Carpathians, Transylvanian Alps and Rhodopes. Exactly half the journey was through Western Europe, the other half through Eastern Europe where the life of the mountain people and shepherd is little changed since the Middle Ages. But everywhere this traditional mountain life is vanishing in the face of tourism, ski resorts and the end of traditional farming patterns. This book is part adventure, part political journey, and an acute observation of fauna, flora and geography.