The Cloud Garden

“In 2000, Tom Hart Dyke, a young botanist, with a passion for orchids, set off on a journey that would change his life forever. Like many university graduates, Tom’s enthusiasm for travelling outstripped any common-sense reservations. Knowing that some of the world’s most exotic and rarest orchids grew in Central America he risked a journey into one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The Darien Gap is the only break in the Pan-American highway which runs from Alaska to the tip of South America, and it comprises an almost impregnable strip of jungle. Civil war in Colombia had driven drug traffickers, guerrilla groups and other organisations deep into this zone and stories of abduction and murder were rife. nbeknown to Tom another young explorer, Paul Winder, had also been backpacking through Central America. Though merely taking a sabbatical from his career as a merchant banker in London, Paul was a fearless and intrepid traveller. Everywhere he visited, rumours abounded about the Darien Gap and the more he heard, the greater his desire to make the journey. At Xmas 1999, the two men met in Mexico forming an instant bond and their fate was sealed. This is their story.