[HN Gopher] A man who walked around the world
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A man who walked around the world
Author : charlieirish
Score : 135 points
Date : 2023-04-11 06:42 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| jejones3141 wrote:
| The article mentions Steven Newman, author of Worldwalk. Neat
| guy. I met him in West Des Moines (or maybe Clive?) when he was
| promoting his book, and got an autographed copy, which I really
| hope I haven't lost over the years. It's well worth reading.
| almog wrote:
| Not to make a competition out of it but since Guinness Record was
| mentioned in the article, I thought I might point out that there
| is at least one hiker who has hiked more miles: Brian Tansman,
| who is mostly known on trail as Buck-30.
|
| He has hiked over 45,000 miles so far. Not sure if he's ever
| featured in a similar article but he has appeared in several
| hiking podcasts such as The Trail Show and Backpacker Radio:
|
| https://backpackerradio.libsyn.com/190-buck-30
|
| https://thetrailshow.com/show108/
|
| Fun fact (that I learned from interviews with Buck-30): being an
| accountant might be the perfect job for long distance hiker as
| the busy season is the tax season, namely - deep winter and early
| spring. Some employer would be happy to keep you employed for
| that season only.
| manquer wrote:
| Savannah's story and achievement is more interesting and never
| done before.
|
| No other land animal has probably covered the same level of
| variation in geography and biomes or walked that much either ,
| some birds or whales would have travelled longer in their
| lifetimes .
|
| Her resilience to disease, wild animal attacks in a such a vast
| journey is pretty impressive.
|
| She doesn't have his inner need to walk the world, yet she kept
| following her friend and that was enough to travel 40,000 km.
|
| I don't think any human or another species would possibly do the
| same for someone else.
| clementmas wrote:
| There's also Tom's World Walk: https://tomsworldwalk.com
| Currently hiking through Indonesia
| elvis70 wrote:
| There is also Mike Horn [1]. He has written several books about
| his expeditions.
|
| Lattitude Zero: "In 1999, Mike set off on an 18-month voyage to
| circle the equator on foot and by sailing.
|
| Conquering the Impossible: "In 2002-04, Mike went around the
| world on the Arctic Circle solo in an expedition dubbed "Arktos".
| It was a solitary voyage of two years and three months without
| motorised transport (boat, kayak, ski kite and on foot) on a
| 20,000 kilometres (12,000 mi) odyssey."
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Horn
| tveyben wrote:
| ''' Of all the places he's seen, Denmark is where Turcich would
| most like to live. "It was the first time I saw there was a
| different way to do infrastructure," says Turcich. "It seemed
| very peaceful. I loved being able to ride my bike everywhere and
| not be blasted by an F-150 truck.
|
| '''
|
| How nice to read!
|
| /a Dane
| zikduruqe wrote:
| I live right off the American Discovery Trail
| (https://discoverytrail.org), and have hosted hikers and bikers
| over the years. And the one thing that they always say, is that
| the world isn't as bad as you hear it is.
| transcoderx wrote:
| Survivor bias?
| cameldrv wrote:
| A distant inlaw of mine did this:
|
| https://www.peteregger.ch/weltumrundung
|
| He had some crazy stories, especially about walking across
| Siberia.
|
| He's a bit of a character to say the least. He decided to cross
| the U.S. by walking down I-80 from SF to New York. On that leg,
| his most positive stories were about going through Utah. A church
| group heard about what he was doing, and would leave him little
| packages along the highway every couple of miles with a bottle of
| water and some food. I know he stayed a lot of the time in
| people's houses. Once people heard his story, they'd just invite
| him over.
| quacked wrote:
| If you meet certain... _standards_ , Utah contains probably the
| highest-trust society present in the US. Just don't try to
| leave the <large religious organization in Utah>, or be the
| wrong race. But it makes sense that they were the most
| receptive to an interesting guest.
| TimedToasts wrote:
| > be the wrong race
|
| What race is that?
| Smoosh wrote:
| Presumably, other than theirs.
| ligerse456 wrote:
| Anyone from the UK interested in long walks should check out the
| new George Ezra doc on Prime video.
| kadonoishi wrote:
| Peter Jenkins did his Walk Across America in the 1980s.
| gcanyon wrote:
| Years back I read a number of books by people who walked or biked
| around the world. Thoughts (these are from memory long ago):
|
| Dave Kunst [1] [2]: Possibly the first person to walk around the
| world in the early '70s. His book was a slog and he came across
| as a bitter and dark person. I didn't like being in his head at
| all. Examples: he enjoyed when people tried to walk with him and
| they found it difficult to keep up. He was married I think at the
| start of the walk, and just told his wife/partner: I'm leaving to
| walk around the world, deal with it. He walked for UNICEF, but in
| the book it was phrased as something like: I knew I'd never be
| able to afford the trip, so getting a sponsor was the best way
| forward.
|
| Barbara Savage [3]: Biked around the world with her husband in
| the '70s. They saved to buy a house, but decided to bike the
| world instead. They were pretty competent but had their fair
| share of incidents. An enjoyable trip with fun people.
|
| Lloyd Sumner [4]: The king of crazy experiences. He rode a bike
| around the world in the early '70s. He started off from the
| American south on a Schwinn with a couple hundred dollars in his
| pocket and a vague plan. He stopped to lecture on generating
| computer art with school mainframes when he ran out of money, got
| chased by an ostrich, almost married by accident, stranded on an
| island after a shipwreck, and more. An absolute delight.
|
| There are two others that I can't remember/find now: a group of
| young men bicycled long distance in the '80s but didn't think to
| have fat tires or a light load: one of them packed a portable
| typewriter, another a full camera kit with many lenses. They
| carried over 100 pounds of gear on skinny tires and got something
| like 20 flats per day at times.
|
| And a guy walked around the world in the '80s, all I remember is
| that he didn't pack well for the journey from France into Spain
| and almost froze in the Pyrenees.
|
| 1. https://www.amazon.com/man-who-walked-around-
| world/dp/068803... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kunst 3.
| https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Nowhere-Round-Bicycle-Adventure...
| 4. https://www.amazon.com/long-ride-Lloyd-Sumner/dp/0811709523
| rbh42 wrote:
| There's also Jesper Kenn Olsen who ran around the world twice;
| first eastwards, then southwards/northwards:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesper_Olsen_(runner)
| ketanmaheshwari wrote:
| Another similar person Meigo Mark:
| https://www.travelandleisureasia.com/in/news/interview-with-...
| mike_hock wrote:
| But the landmass above sea level isn't path-connected.
| DubiousPusher wrote:
| Heads up. It's not Bakunin.
| yachtman1 wrote:
| This feels like it was written by ChatGPT
| kriskrunch wrote:
| > he said he'd been walking around the world all this time and as
| soon as he clicked with people, he'd always be saying goodbye.
|
| I feel the same way when I take my little vacations... I meet
| amazing people, connect, and then move on. There is a beauty to
| it though. I really try to enjoy those moments. They are so
| brief.
|
| This was a touching story, especially the fact that the dog he
| rescued might be the first dog to have walked around the world!
|
| In elementary school, around 2nd grade, I attended a talk by Dave
| Kunst, the first man to walk around the globe. I'm surprised the
| Guardian didn't mention him. His story has often surfaced in my
| memory. I never had the guts to do anything remotely so
| adventurous... and he did it in the very wild 1970s. Around the
| same time my mother hitchhiked from South America to the US.
|
| Dave told us he searched for sponsors before embarking on his
| trip, but no one would take him seriously. Not even shoe
| companies!
|
| He walked to the edge of each continent, to dip his toes in the
| ocean at the start and end of each continent to make sure he was
| going as far as possible. I think there were a handful of
| countries he wasn't able to pass through for some reason or
| another.
|
| Dave's brother was killed on the journey by thugs who thought
| Dave and his brother were personally taking donations and
| carrying the money. He said he came to peace with his brother's
| murder because he died doing what he loved. If I remember
| correctly, another brother joined Dave to complete the trip. In
| all his journey took around four years. About half the time it
| took Tom.
|
| He closed the talk by showing us all photos of his last pair of
| shoes after he had completed his trip, and then a photo of his
| bare feet -- and we all screamed in disgust!
| nervousvarun wrote:
| Wow the Kunst story is incredible!
|
| His brother's tragic death, his own recovery in the hospital,
| the people he met who helped him along the way (including his
| future wife!).
|
| This would make an incredible biopic:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kunst
| e40 wrote:
| _> and then a photo of his bare feet -- and we all screamed in
| disgust!_
|
| I'm really curious about the reason and the state of his feet,
| having walked so much.
| bklaasen wrote:
| He'd have lost a toenail or two and might have a bit of
| callusing.
| waltbosz wrote:
| I have an uncle who has walked across the United States several
| times. Here is an article about him:
| https://ithacavoice.org/2015/03/homeless-traveler-survived-o...
| rippercushions wrote:
| > Steve Newman (an American who circumnavigated the globe on foot
| over four years in the late 1980s)
|
| I read Newman's _Worldwalk_ some time ago. It 's a long book that
| covers his adventures in the US and Europe in detail, then
| describes landing in Morocco and being freaked out by all the
| Arabs who speak only Arabic, and then conveniently elides _the
| rest of the world entirely_ and finishes off with him returning
| home. Did he really walk across Africa and Asia?
| zamadatix wrote:
| Based on the path described here
| https://www.expertsure.com/data/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/w...
| it looks like he really didn't spend much time in those places.
| The Jean Beliveau walk seems more like what someone might
| expect.
| Georgelemental wrote:
| Huh--in these maps, Belarus appears to have become a vast
| inland sea
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| > He was already an optimist when he set off, but by the time he
| returned he had even more faith in humankind, if less in some of
| the systems we live under.
|
| That's been my experience. When I turn off the news and just get
| outside and in the company of strangers, I get a much more
| uplifted view of humanity. I would love to walk/bike on a long
| journey like this guy did, but it may remain a fantasy the rest
| of my life. I do road-trip every chance I can.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| It's tricky. I go around the neighbourhood and meet lovely,
| warm, friendly, happy inviting people.
|
| But I'm a white english-speaking (albeit with a slight accent)
| reasonably-well-off male so of course they're nice.
|
| Then they add me on facebook or twitter or ask me to come to
| their church, or I hang out with them at their BBQ, and _god
| damn it_ , they turn out to be angry racist homophobic
| xenophobic folks _actively_ working to make life as difficult
| as they can for [women|people of
| colour|homosexuals|immigrants|poor people|anybody different],
| while promoting black salve and homeopathy and power of prayer
| as remedies and planning how they 're going to "get" the
| biden/trudau/scientists/leftie/woke/socialist/pinkie/commie/etc
| bastards and their vaccines and chips and jewish world
| domination plans.
|
| I've been _genuinely_ morally /philosophically/existentially
| torn last decade: do I try to see only the good in people? Do I
| try to engage them in commonalities, build from positions of
| mutual agreement? OR, does that make me an enabler of evil if
| I'm not tackling and facing and acknowledging and arguing their
| darker demons?
| vkou wrote:
| It's not your job, or a moral imperative for you to civilize
| barbarians.
|
| It's also almost impossible to convert people like that out
| of their cesspit of ignorance and hate.
|
| If you want to spend time with them, despite all that, you're
| not a bad person. If you don't, you're not a bad person
| either. It's a personal choice.
|
| A lot of people who have those people as relatives struggle
| with the question of whether to cut them out of their lives.
| Ultimately, I can't judge them, regardless of what decision
| they make.
| hydrok9 wrote:
| It's not your responsibility to save the world. You can
| engage with people just on the basis of your shared humanity.
| If they refuse to let you disagree with their beliefs, let
| them go.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| I subscribe to the philosophy that "the only thing necessary
| for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do
| nothing."
|
| Figuring out what you can do within your own sphere of
| influence can be hard, but you certainly don't have to
| pretend like bigots are nice people because they invite you
| to their BBQ.
| trompetenaccoun wrote:
| White English-speaking people are a minority in the world. If
| it seems that you can't get along with them, why not try out
| living in a place where there are fewer of them? Cameroon,
| Pakistan or Indonesia... so many countries to choose from. It
| could be a healing experience getting out of your bubble and
| experiencing less racism, homophobia and all the other toxic
| stuff you describe.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I guess it would not be obvious from my post; I was born in
| a non-English speaking country; and after years of civil
| war, racism, xenophobia, and people shooting at me because
| of my name or perceived religion or ethnicity etc, I'm now
| in Canada, and happily, gratefully, excitedly so :)
|
| But I am always wary of the risk and danger of my new
| country going the way of my old country. I don't think it's
| a _given_ that Canada and Canadians will be tolerant, open
| minded, welcoming, friendly - and indeed, many people
| underneath their veneer, are not.
|
| In this context, mentioning in my post that I'm english
| speaking is to acknowledge my privilege of not immediatelly
| appearing to some people as being an immigrant, poor, or
| different than some of my neighbours. I imagine e.g. a
| dark-skinned woman with a less Western name and more
| obviously non-christian, would find out some of these fine
| folks' true nature a lot faster :-/
| dpc050505 wrote:
| > I don't think it's a given that Canada and Canadians
| will be tolerant, open minded, welcoming, friendly - and
| indeed, many people underneath their veneer, are not.
|
| A lot of Quebecois have stories of relatives being
| arrested without probable cause by the RCMP during the
| october crisis of 1970. Some of us have indigenous
| friends whose parents were in the residential school
| system. A lot of us have witnessed unconstitutional
| arrests during g20 protests in Toronto in 2011 or in
| Quebec in 2012 go unpunished for the politicians who
| ordered them and the cops who carried them out (it's
| literally kidnapping).
|
| Canada is a corporatocracy. Read Alain Denault's books.
| Canada acts as a legal shelter for natural ressource
| extraction companies that commit crimes in developing
| countries. A lot of the big markets in the country
| (groceries, telecom, etc.) are full on oligopolies that
| are protected by the government. This country is part of
| the british empire and when you pull back the veneer of
| politeness and decency you see a very violent country.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I don't think we are in a disagreement, necessarily. To
| another poster's point, I've lived in different bubbles
| and this one is _better_. It 's far from perfect though,
| and it's not guaranteed whether it'll go toward better or
| less good.
| athenot wrote:
| Part of this is an interesting side effect that interacting
| with people 1:1 is different than when the interaction is
| intermediated by a group or an ideology or a commercial
| platform.
|
| I find that when I strip away group dynamics, people all have
| similar basic needs; that many fears are shared; that many
| people have similar hopes even if specific struggles or needs
| vary greatly.
|
| Yes it's disappointing to find out that a nice person turns
| out to be part of a digusting group, but on the flip side,
| sometimes seeing the humanity in different people can help
| lessen the ideologic stronghold on some people. I have some
| narrow-minded friends and relatives who have been a bit less
| categorical just by hanging out with nice people who think
| totally differently than them.
| version_five wrote:
| When I turn off the news and just get outside and in the
| company of strangers, I get a much more uplifted view of
| humanity.
|
| I agree though it's a bit of sticking your head in the sand,
| no? There person is smart, people ... (per men in black).
| That's why it's always refreshing to talk to a person or two,
| but easy to be horrified when you look at what people are
| doing.
| Smoosh wrote:
| Is people just a large enough sample of person that a few
| extreme outliers creep in?
| Juliate wrote:
| What I take out of this, is rather that the news are (at this
| point) more the ruminating, focusing on the bad/worst of
| humanity, rather than the uplifting/inspiring.
|
| In that, it's addictive, and/but not useful nor efficient nor
| representative of humanity state and progress (of which you
| get a broader perspective when you get to meet different
| people everyday).
|
| In that perspective, skipping the news is not so much burying
| the head in the sand, rather the opposite.
| bklaasen wrote:
| TV news is curated for a particular effect; Why this story,
| and not that one?
|
| It is a type of commercial entertainment. It it
| simultaneously inane and culturally violent. Here are people
| dying in an ongoing struggle for power between warlords and a
| corrupt government; here are professional athletes winning a
| tournament. Here's the weather forecast. These subjects merit
| approximately equal time and similar sentiment in tone. As a
| viewer of TV news, you are not empowered to change anything
| because you are not informed of any of the forces and
| complexities driving the violence and there is no call to
| action.
| TigerTeamX wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwnNrr9RO2Y
| rocketbop wrote:
| I don't think it's about the news horrifying us as much as
| too much consumption making us numb and hypnotised. I used to
| watch the news once a day on TV and read the newspaper two or
| three times a week and the experience of news to that cadence
| compared to what I'm gorging on now is night and day. That
| was habit, this is addiction.
| boeingUH60 wrote:
| People who watch too much news tend to be the unhappiest
| people, and for some reason, they like to spread that
| unhappiness and negativity around...like a zombie infection
| or something.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Absolutely.
|
| _...if less in some of the systems we live under_
|
| People put those systems we live under in place, and,
| importantly, people continue, even go out of their way, to
| keep these systems in place. It's not enough to simply
| recognize that issues are systemic. Good people would
| actually do something to address them.
| user3939382 wrote:
| George Carlin had a bit about liking people as individuals but
| not in groups.
| croisillon wrote:
| "Le pluriel ne vaut rien a l'homme et sitot qu'on Est plus de
| quatre, on est une bande de cons"
|
| (The plural is worth nothing to man, as soon as we are more
| than four, we are a bunch of idiots)
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties,
| nations, and ages it is the rule. -- Nietzsche
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| https://archive.ph/lMbln
| cactusplant7374 wrote:
| Here's someone that did something similar.
|
| Paul Salopek on Walking the World
| https://open.spotify.com/episode/2osIQvsdKn9LQEhHktXz1V
| oh_sigh wrote:
| For balance, also someone who tried to do something similar:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bacca
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