Tony Robinson-Smith, his wife Nadya, and ten Bhutanese college students set out to run 578 kilometres (360 miles) across the Kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas. Joined by a stray dog, they slogged over five mountain passes, bathed in ice-clogged streams, ate over log fires, and stopped at every store, restaurant, guesthouse, and dzong to raise money for the Tarayana Foundation. The “Tara-thon” was the first endeavour of its kind and gave 350 village children the chance to go to school. En route, the Long Distance Dozen met a Buddhist lama, a royal prince, a Tibetan renegade, and a matriarch who told them the secret to long life. On arrival in Thimphu, they were decorated by Her Majesty the Queen. In this contemplative memoir, Tony describes Bhutan in rich detail at a transformative period in its history and reflects on tradition, belief, modernization, and happiness.

See the book trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-VsWAbTHAQ

British Canadian travel writer Tony Robinson-Smith is the author of Back in 6 Years: A Journey Around the Planet Without Leaving the Surface, a memoir of his travels by sailboat, bicycle, merchant truck, bread van, and outrigger canoe through fifty-five countries and across three oceans. He also wrote The Dragon Run about the 578 km marathon he and his wife Nadya ran with ten college students and a stray dog across Bhutan to raise money to send local village kids to school. Tony has written travel tales for The Globe and Mail and Druk Air’s inflight magazine Tashi Delek. He is a regular contributor to the American online travel magazine Perceptive Travel. In 2018, Tony and Nadya spent three months in Papua New Guinea, paddling dugout canoes down the Sepik River and hiking in the highlands in search of elusive Birds-of-paradise.

Tony Robinson-Smith's profile page

• Winner, INDIE Book of the Year Awards (Adventure & Recreation) - Honorable Mention
• Short-listed, WFNB Nonfiction Prize

"Robinson-Smith's account of the Tara-thon is lively, richly detailed and unvarnished... [The] imagination is caught by what Robinson-Smith reveals about the society itself, Bhutan's history, the wary insularity of its mountain fastness, the harsh demands of life there, the delightfully appealing economic measure known as Gross National Happiness, and the effects, good and bad, of increased contact with the modern world." Richard Cumyn, The Fiddlehead, November 2018

The Fiddlehead

"Travel writing in Canada is alive, well, and robustly athletic.... Robinson-Smith does a good job of juxtaposing Western perceptions, both historic and modern, with the challenges faced by the Bhutanese..." [Full review at http://canlit.ca/article/running-and-riding-away/]

Canadian Literature

A worthy addition to the canon of running memoirs. An unprecedented journey across a singular spiritual landscape, enlivened by Robinson-Smith’s keen eye for detail, beautiful prose, and remarkable endurance. A travelogue that takes seriously its responsibility to its hosts. Thoughtful, mindful, compelling.

Nonfiction Prize, New Brunswick Book Awards