Waypoints: A Journey on Foot

A spellbinding travel book, which explores the psychology of pilgrimage, wilderness and walking.

A spellbinding travel book, exploring the psychology of walking, pilgrimage, solitude and escape.

‘An extraordinary, dreamlike journey through west Africa’ Adharanand Finn

At the age of twenty-seven, and afraid of falling into a life he doesn’t want, Robert Martineau quits his office job, buys a flight to Accra and begins to walk. He walks 1,000 miles through Ghana, Togo and Benin, to Ouidah, an ancient spiritual centre on the West African coast.

Martineau walks alone across desert, through rainforests, over mountains, carrying everything he needs on his back, sleeping in villages or on the side of paths. Along the way he meets shamans, priests, historians, archaeologists and kings. He begins to confront the lines of slavery and exploitation that binds his home to theirs. Through the process of walking each day, and the lessons of those he walks among, Martineau starts to find the freedom he craves, and to build connections with the natural world and the past.

In an extraordinary account of an adventure, and the inner journey that accompanies it, Martineau discovers how a walking pilgrimage can change a person.

‘Marvellous… A book about how to travel’ Jay Griffiths, author of Wild

‘ Martineau’s story, beautifully written, of how his pilgrimage of sorts changed him forever’ Evening Standard