Hazel Porteous

The Naked Backpacker Barefoot Hazel Porteous

In her travel memoir, Hazel continues her journey around the world until the novel coronavirus causes her travels to be suspended. In this sequel to The Naked Backpacker, she continues her search for new experiences and follows her passion to unearth some of the vanishing wildlife in fragile ecosystems threatened by human interaction. She shares anecdotes about the hurdles she encounters on these quests and the frustrating but often humorous situations she finds herself in as she seeks out bears in Canada, India's big five and exotic creatures throughout Central and South America. As well as revelling in the natural wilderness, she also learns about the brutality of war in countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, which validate why love and peace are essential to survival. Amongst her many adventures, she tears her calf muscle hiking a glacier, gets saturated in hell, survives an earthquake in Jamaica, avoids the bushfires in British Columbia and gets scammed in India. Walking with a wolf, cuddling a sloth in Honduras and swimming with sharks in Belize helps define her affection of animals. Mucking around with meerkats, greeting a capuchin, posing with a beaver, discovering blue iguanas in the Cayman Islands, cradling an alligator and being kissed by a bear are all encounters she cherishes. She is fortunate to have experienced so much and grateful to have travelled so far.