Visions of the Wild: A Voyage by Kayak Around Vancouver Island

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Maria Coffey and Dag Goering are a writer-photographer team, a married
couple who live off Canada’s West Coast and who guide sea-kayaking
trips worldwide. They have published four previous books on similar
topics and written for numerous publications. Visions of the Wild has
enough striking color photography to qualify as a coffee-table book. The
subtitle sums up the adventure undertaken, while the main title suggests
the spirit that was required for—and reinforced by—the trip.

John Dowd, another experienced kayaker who writes on the topic, sees
Coffey and Goering as ideal sea kayakers who write “with an engaging
style that introduces the reader to a kaleidoscope of wonderful
characters and historic places without becoming guide-bookish.” I
would agree. Their style manages to be both poetic and practical—in
short, reader-friendly. Armchair travelers could hardly do better, while
would-be trippers will find a wealth of information, inspiration, and
pleasure between the covers of this handsome book.