Yomping to Dorridge details a hundred-mile hike along the Grand Union Canal towpath in midwinter, the narrator spending the five days contemplating Matsuo Basho's famous furuike ya kawasu tobikomu mizu no oto and attempting some haiku of his own, his wife walking more quietly beside the stillness of the canal's dark and murky water. Together, they meet fishermen, boaters and barmen, they see green fields, endless hedgerows and muddy paths, they find haiku, happiness and the long way home.