The Echidna and the Shade Tree

Tim Cahill returns with an entertaining collection of essays as he travels the globe and faces down challenges that are animal, topographical and human. Cahill takes us to sites as far-flung as Saharan salt mines, the Congolese jungle, and Hanford, Washington, home of the largest toxic waste dump in the western hemisphere. With trademark wit and insight, Cahill describes stalking the legendary Caspian tiger in the mountains bordering Iraq, slogging through a pitch-black Australian Eucalyptus forest to find the nocturnal platypus, diving with great white sharks in South Africa, staving off enlightenment at a yoga retreat in Negril, Jamaica, and much, much more.