A Sarnia man, who has been to nearly 100 countries, has penned and published a book based on his own travels across Europe.
Steve Hunter, 42, said the book Relish in the Tread follows a character named "Freddi" who finds himself at a crossroads in life and decides to walk across Spain.
"The trail across Spain is fantastic! He meets a lot of fantastic, random people from different parts of the world," Hunter said.
(Sarnia Author Steve Hunter, photo submitted by Steve Hunter.)
"It's also a very commercialized walking path (Camino de Santiago) and there are many people and a lot of drama ensues. He felt like this pilgrimage trail is something very important and it made him feel very close to the road again, something that had been missing from [his] travels beforehand."
After following the trail through Spain, the main character decides to walk from Rome to Istanbul.
The book is based on Hunter's own trek across Europe, which spanned five years around 2012.
"After Europe, I hitchhiked from Istanbul all the way back around Europe, I walked across Portugal, and then I hitched all the way to -- I got as far as Ghana before I ran out of money," he said. "I circled back around to Gambia, flew back to Europe, did some odd jobs, and then flew out to New Zealand. I worked over there for a while and then hitchhiked back from Singapore all the way back to Europe."
Hunter said he spent 15 years moving from country to country as part of his goal to travel the world by foot.
His book is essentially a snapshot of his travels.
"I chose this part to write about initially because of the pilgrimage aspect and the minimalism," he said.
This is Hunter's first published book. He wrote one before about his travels across Canada but it was never published.
"I shelved it. It was a very armature first try and it taught me a lot about writing," he said. "It led me to want to write something a bit more powerful, with a bit more literary merit, something that people would actually enjoy and take from."
So far, Hunter has been to 88 countries and intends to keep travelling.
Hunter was travelling through Asia when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and spent more time than expected in Kazakhstan.
"I managed part of what I wanted to accomplish but if not for COVID, I would have easily been across 100 countries," he said. "The number sort of, I guess, gives me an inclination of how far I went but the 125,000 kilometres that I hitchhiked, that's 12 times the full length of Canada so I think that gives a bit more of an idea of how far."
Hunter said he started travelling with the intention of having "a good time" and to explore different regions and cultures. His travels later brought up a curiosity about the similarities between different countries and about "people movement" or colonialism.
His travels also evolved into a more immersive experience where he engaged more with locals and worked small jobs.
"I didn't see it at first, I was just going to tourist areas," he said.
"I was hiking a bit but I wasn't really connecting with culture, and when I started to connect with culture in Europe, I just started getting much, much more fascinated."
Hunter said some bookstores in Sarnia, Chatham-Kent, and Windsor-Essex have agreed to carry his self-published book, including The Book Keeper and Houde Family Books. He said hard cover copies will likely be on local bookshelves by the end of April, and a Kindle edition and paperback copies are available at Amazon.ca.