Everyone (or almost) has dreamed of going around the world at some time. The typical thing that is said between friends in a bar: “We are going to go with a backpack as far as our feet take us.” In reality, very few people have gone around the world on foot. Nowadays doing it by plane or interrail is no longer so complicated, it just takes time and desire, but the world is now more interconnected than ever.
Doing it on foot is already somewhat more complicated, although not impossible. If the passion for trekking has led thousands of people to travel the north of Spain with their backpack (Camino de Santiago) or part of Peru (Camino del Inca), what prevents us from taking a longer route? Well, much much much more extensive. We are talking about the longest walkable path in the world. That is, the longest route that can be done without having to take a vehicle or boat to continue. Get out a map and let’s see what it is.
The longest walking route on Earth is suspected to be 22,530 kilometers from South Africa to the extreme north of Russia, in the city of Magadan. A Reddit user estimated her on a map. He also describes her by RealLifeLore in a YouTube video. The curious thing about this journey is that at no time is it necessary to use even a small boat to cross a river, because the entire route is made up of roads with bridges. In fact, the walking route suggested by Google Maps between the two points includes a trip by ferry, but whoever devised the original route proposed a much more authentic (and slow) alternative to crossing that section with a bridge.
It is the longest distance that can be traveled on foot between two points on Earth. In fact, it is the equivalent of the distance from the start to the top of Everest multiplied by 14 (doesn’t seem like that much, does it?) It is also more than half of the Earth’s total circumference of 40,000 kilometers. A person who decides to complete the route would have to spend around three years to complete the trip at an average but constant pace of approximately 20 kilometers a day.
Starting from Cape Town in South Africa, this uninterrupted trail passes through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Romania, Belarus, and Russia.
What should be put in the backpack? It does not matter, because surely we would have to buy hundreds of utensils along the way: clothing for the desert, clothing for the rain and even bulletproof vests for conflict zones or at war. And probably even another backpack, if this one hasn’t been stolen from us on the way. The most important? Medicines And it is that the distance is not really overwhelming of this movement, but the real problems that derive from it. We talk about wild animals, extreme weather and especially other people. And this is regrettable.
To give you an idea. To complete it you would have to walk through Zimbabwe, for example, which is the home of Black Mamba, one of the deadliest snakes on the planet. In Uganda, traveling through a country with the highest number of registered malaria cases in the world. When you arrive in South Sudan, you go through the third most dangerous country in the world. Further north, you have to cross the Sahara, where temperatures reach 46ºC.
And if you really get through all of this, you still have to travel through other countries and climates. After walking the length of all of Egypt, the trail enters Jordan first, then Israel, and then war-torn Syria. Once out of Syria, you would walk through Turkey, then Georgia and finally arrive in Russia, experiencing the harsh Siberian winter as you walk through its landmass, on your way to Magadan, where the freezing temperatures are registered and where the road of bones ends. Let’s say it’s not exactly a walk around the neighborhood.
The passion for spiritual travel
Pilgrimages like the Camino de Santiago or the Appalachian Trail are short compared to this adventure. Many have embarked on this type of excursion, either for spiritual reasons or for the desire to know remote places. The most popular, the Camino de Santiago, which leads to the sanctuary of the Apostle Santiago in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is about 800 kilometers long. It’s amazing that next to the longest walk on Earth this seems like a ridiculous walk. Of course, let’s ask the walkers and we’ll see what they tell us.
The Appalachian Trail that runs vertically along the eastern edge of the US is approximately 3,200 kilometers long, and although it is not an explicitly religious or spiritual journey, the organization that cares for it calls it a “sacred space” by its nature. preserved. The longest known ongoing religious pilgrimage is that of a man named Arthur Blessitt, who has walked more than 40,000 miles since 1969. But it is not a contiguous path, and therefore, he has been able to visit the seven continents, where he has dedicated his time. to pilgrimage and preach their religious beliefs. This 79-year-old man has traveled all the nations of the Earth.