Writer Johno Ellison  is well travelled by anyone’s standards - he has lived in more than 80 countries and once spent 15 months driving around the world in a London black cab.

But his latest adventure is a little closer to home - for a new book out this month, Johno has returned to his roots and walked the length of the River Wharfe.

Starting in the Vale of York, he has followed on foot the course of the river upstream, taking in Ilkley and Otley on the way to the source of the river in the Yorkshire Dales.

Growing up in Boston Spa, Johno spent his teenage years in Collingham, and initially trained as a helicopter pilot before embarking on his globe-trotting adventures.

He wrote about his journey across the world in a 20-year-old black cab he bought on eBay in the book It’s On The Meter, which was translated into four languages.

His next book, Walking the Wharfe: An Ode To A Yorkshire River, is out on August 10 from leading independent travel publisher Bradt Guides, and does exactly what it says on the tin.

His publishers say: “Retracing the steps of 19th-century writer Edmund Bogg, who made the same journey more than a hundred years earlier, he encounters a microcosm of English culture, landscape and history.”

Starting in the Vale of York, Johno walks upstream to experience the natural beauty of Yorkshire one last time before he relocates to live abroad permanently.

Wild camping along the way, he meanders with the river to explore its Viking and Roman heritage, smattering of Victorian spa towns and picturesque villages.

He stops off at local breweries and working mills, encounters an elusive otter and passes the mighty Strid – one of the world’s most dangerous stretches of water, notorious for drowning everyone who has ever tumbled in.

Hiking deep into the Yorkshire Dales National Park, including along the Dales Way long-distance footpath, he is forced to take refuge in a candlelit pub on a stormy night before finally reaching the Wharfe’s trickling source amid a vast boggy moorland.

His publisher adds: “In this quirky, contemplative travelogue, we meet a cast of fascinating characters, from modern-day Vikings and the fearless Dales Dippers to a family who have farmed the Yorkshire hills for five generations.

“As Ellison stumbles across Neolithic stone circles, industrial pioneers and the real-life Dick Whittington, he uncovers local legends of giants, trolls, kelpies and wartime ghosts.

“In a world of globetrotting explorers and record-breaking journeys, Walking the Wharfe is a gem of slow travel writing. As he follows the river, Ellison comes to see that our small island can hold its own against big-name tourist sites the world over.”

Since 2014, Johno has lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he works as a freelance Product Designer and teaches online engineering and design courses to students from all around the world.