A distant inlaw of mine did this:<p><a href="https://www.peteregger.ch/weltumrundung" rel="nofollow">https://www.peteregger.ch/weltumrundung</a><p>He had some crazy stories, especially about walking across Siberia.<p>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.
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.<p>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:<p><a href="https://backpackerradio.libsyn.com/190-buck-30" rel="nofollow">https://backpackerradio.libsyn.com/190-buck-30</a><p><a href="https://thetrailshow.com/show108/" rel="nofollow">https://thetrailshow.com/show108/</a><p>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.
I live right off the American Discovery Trail (<a href="https://discoverytrail.org" rel="nofollow">https://discoverytrail.org</a>), 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.
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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.<p>‘’’<p>How nice to read!<p>/a Dane
> 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.<p>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.<p>This was a touching story, especially the fact that the dog he rescued might be the first dog to have walked around the world!<p>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.<p>Dave told us he searched for sponsors before embarking on his trip, but no one would take him seriously. Not even shoe companies!<p>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.<p>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.<p>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!
There is also Mike Horn [1]. He has written several books about his expeditions.<p>Lattitude Zero: "In 1999, Mike set off on an 18-month voyage to circle the equator on foot and by sailing.<p>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."<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Horn" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Horn</a>
> 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.<p>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.
Here's someone that did something similar.<p>Paul Salopek on Walking the World
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2osIQvsdKn9LQEhHktXz1V" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/episode/2osIQvsdKn9LQEhHktXz1V</a>
> Steve Newman (an American who circumnavigated the globe on foot over four years in the late 1980s)<p>I read Newman's <i>Worldwalk</i> 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 <i>the rest of the world entirely</i> and finishes off with him returning home. Did he really walk across Africa and Asia?
There's also Tom's World Walk: <a href="https://tomsworldwalk.com" rel="nofollow">https://tomsworldwalk.com</a>
Currently hiking through Indonesia
I have an uncle who has walked across the United States several times. Here is an article about him: <a href="https://ithacavoice.org/2015/03/homeless-traveler-survived-outside-cold-ithaca-nights/" rel="nofollow">https://ithacavoice.org/2015/03/homeless-traveler-survived-o...</a>
Years back I read a number of books by people who walked or biked around the world. Thoughts (these are from memory long ago):<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>1. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/man-who-walked-around-world/dp/0688034373" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/man-who-walked-around-world/dp/068803...</a>
2. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kunst" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Kunst</a>
3. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Nowhere-Round-Bicycle-Adventure/dp/0898861098" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Nowhere-Round-Bicycle-Adventure...</a>
4. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/long-ride-Lloyd-Sumner/dp/0811709523" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/long-ride-Lloyd-Sumner/dp/0811709523</a>
Savannah’s story and achievement is more interesting and never done before.<p>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 .<p>Her resilience to disease, wild animal attacks in a such a vast journey is pretty impressive.<p>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.<p>I don’t think any human or another species would possibly do the same for someone else.
There's also Jesper Kenn Olsen who ran around the world twice; first eastwards, then southwards/northwards: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesper_Olsen_(runner)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesper_Olsen_(runner)</a>
I met this guy last summer in Yellowstone National Park.<p><a href="https://ricoslongwalk.de" rel="nofollow">https://ricoslongwalk.de</a><p>I was hiking the Continental Divide Trail and he was walking across the country. I'm not sure I totally get the appeal of walking around the world on roads, but I was cool seeing someone else on a similar but very different journey from my own.
Funny, just yesterday I was wondering how many people had walked around the world, after I watched this movie about Jonas Deichmann's triathlon (120 ironmans) around the world. Trailer (with English subtitles): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1nLajor-qA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1nLajor-qA</a>
Another similar person Meigo Märk: <a href="https://www.travelandleisureasia.com/in/news/interview-with-vegan-traveller-meigo-mark-who-has-walked-22-countries/" rel="nofollow">https://www.travelandleisureasia.com/in/news/interview-with-...</a>
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.