The book is a light-hearted and humorous travel memoir that describes the author's experiences of traveling light around the world in his retirement. After the death of his wife, mixing with youthful backpackers taking gap years and learning from the indigenous people in the countries he visited, enabled him to see himself as others saw him - a view that helped him come to terms with a life alone, while recapturing youth in the process. This is the first in a series.describing his experiences in both polar regions and in the tropics, trekking among mountains and jungles, and exploring underwater.