
Man Walks Nearly 3000 Miles Through China - richardknop
http://www.lifebuzz.com/chris-walks/
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jzwinck
I walked 113 miles (182 km) of the South West Coast Path in Cornwall, England.
That took "only" 9 days, but it was enough that when I arrived in a decent-
size town after a week of walking, I felt a sort of vertigo simply from being
around so many people, shops, and all the rest. A week spent just walking (and
eating full English breakfast every single day) was enough to feel something
really different.

I highly recommend ultra-long walks, and the South West Coast Path (600 miles
and two months to do the whole thing). There's nothing quite like it.

~~~
gbog
It's become fashionable to walk along Saint-Jacques de Compostelle pilgrimage
path in France and Spain. Would you call it ultra-long walk?

Anyways, the good part of it is that you have cheap and clean pilgrim hotels
all the way, and the food is quite good in most places.

~~~
jzwinck
Yes of course. I've seen it, but not walked it. Also known as the Way of St.
James, the typical route seems to be about 500 miles (800 km), which is
certainly substantial. And if you're into the religious aspects, there are
probably few better places to spend a few weeks going slowly. But you probably
won't find the sort of isolation that you would on less popular/accessible
paths.

~~~
jcomis
Really depends on the time of year and the actual year. I lived right on the
path of the camino and talked to tons of people who were completing it. "Holy
years" will see about 1.5x to 2x more pilgrims. It peaks at el dia de santiago
(July 25). That's when the trail, particularly the last leg, will be quite
crowded. On July 25th it will be a steady stream flowing into the main square.
In late summer, fall or spring, from what I gather it's quite easy to not see
a soul on most days. There are also a lot of side routes off the main path.

Also, although the route has a lot of religious meaning, loads of people who
are hiking aren't religious at all. So don't let that discourage you.

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danso
So, I'm guessing blogspammy Upworthy links are banned, but upworthy-clone
links aren't yet? This side by side comparison of the two sites' layouts will
shock you:

[http://i.imgur.com/kvcdjCB.png](http://i.imgur.com/kvcdjCB.png)

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chrisBob
Thats about how any long trail hiker looks. My personal best is the John Muir
trail (15 days no resupply). That was plenty to see a difference. My wife and
I both lost about 10 lbs, and neither of us had that much to loose. I actually
got sick and threw up after eating regular food at a restaurant the day we
finished.

Some day I would like to do an art project of before and after photos of all
of the AT hikers one year. I think it would be impressive, and would only
require a few weeks at the start and about a month or so at the finish to get
a good group of people.

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morgante
I highly recommend long hikes/walks as a method of realigning yourself (and
improving health).

For my father's 60th birthday, we hiked the 270 miles of the Long Trail. It
was a grueling experience at first, but one of the best things I've ever done.
We became much closer afterwards, and I lost about 40 lbs.

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sanoli
Call me jaded, but this is another "let's travel somewhere exotic/remote and
post about it later because it's cool" doesn't get me anymore. But I don't get
why he didn't just start walking from where he was. If you want to wander and
just walk, start from there, no need to go to China. Like I said, a little bit
jaded.

~~~
avar
If you live in a rich western country and want to take time off to wander then
it's going to be less expensive to do so in a country like China.

It's also probably much more interesting to go to a poorer country where
people are more likely to be farming out in the countryside or walking/biking
around than just walking by some highway in a western country.

~~~
jzwinck
Exactly right. My budget walking in England (see my other comment here) was
about 230 USD per day for two people; cycling in Malaysia it was 50 USD for
the same.

If you're going to do this for a really long time, you may as well travel
somewhere that will excite you, and where you can do it four times longer for
the same money.

~~~
gbog
50 USD per day in Malaysia, in country side? Seems like a lot. In China I
would go as down as 20$ par day.

~~~
jzwinck
50 USD per day for two people together. We stayed in towns, as the Malay
countryside is not flush with hotels (longest stretch of highway without one:
about 50 km). If two people scrimped they could do it for 30 USD (especially
toward the north), but it isn't rural China.

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epaladin
I'd really like to do a real long-distance walk/hike eventually. I tried
walking south out of Nagoya station in Japan, aiming to get Hiroshima, but I
only ended up going about 50 miles before I ran out of time and had to take
the train the rest of the way. I didn't make nearly as much progress as I
hoped, at least part due to shoes that weren't appropriate at all, and hadn't
been broken in. That was a huge surprise, as I had spent the rest of the year
training for a marathon, and figured I was plenty used to foot pain. So I
learned that shoes matter just as much for walking as they do for running when
it comes to long distance.

I was hoping it was going to be a transformative experience, but either I
didn't try hard enough to break habits, or a few days wasn't enough time. Now
that I've learned a thing or two about mindfulness, I feel like I'd approach
it differently in terms of attitude/mindset. It was still an interesting
adventure.

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PhantomGremlin
Bah. Headline is misleading. There aren't "photos", it's a 5:18 video.

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frenger
> A lot of people look at the video thinking “I want to be free like that
> guy!” – but they don’t realize that I was driven by something, and maybe I
> was losing control over it.”

very interesting

~~~
admiraltbags
As someone who just quit his job to walk 2650+ miles along the pacific crest
trail I found his last statement very interesting as well.

I'm a pretty normal tech industry hacker who can sometimes be socially awkward
and definitely a bit introverted. I'm hiking the PCT because it will force me
through things I find uncomfortable like being alone, and meeting new people.
As I see it, I'm forcing myself through a tumbler and hoping what comes out
the other end is more in line with who I want to be. Very different reasons.

~~~
cellover
Everyone has different reasons for starting such an adventure but I tend to
think that "hoping for a change" might be the worst. Don't get me wrong, I
respect this idea, I just feel the starting asumption may lead you somewhere
you did not expect at first.

You might not like what you find during your adventure, you might not like
what you discover of yourself, you might lie to yourself, incounciously trying
to convince yourself that you're on the right path.

Trying to stay really objective towards oneself during such a trip is quite a
challenge by itself, a very interesting one.

I feel that hiking / biking for the sake of it, for the beauty of the world,
of its people, for the physical performance is a much more truthful experience
than any other self-conviction goal.

In the end, what counts stays in you, in your eyes, in your heart and muscles.
And that's not the kind of things you can sum up by a video, a blog or any
slideshow back home.

That said, I wish sincerely that you find yourself!

~~~
dasil003
I don't get the logic here. "hoping for a change" is certainly a difficult
emotion that is not easily resolved and we shouldn't delude ourselves into
believing in silver bullets, but why is it worse going out on an adventure
than staying where you are? At least you get some exercise, which in my mind
is always a good start for inducing an improvement in one's mental state.

~~~
cellover
Absolutely agreed! But even if the body helps the mind, it can be hard facing
yourself, hard admitting you took the wrong direction especially if you are
doing it alone.

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Sprint
Direct link to video: [http://vimeo.com/4636202](http://vimeo.com/4636202)

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orph
I calculate my life saving in terms of years I can spend walking non-stop. At
~20 years worth, I'll begin.

After soloing Annapurna and GR20 and many US national parks, walking is the
only thing I really want to do with my life.

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arethuza
Something similar - 10,000km from Mongolia to Hungary by Horse on the Trail of
Genghis Khan:

[http://www.timcopejourneys.com/page/journeys/on-the-trail-
of...](http://www.timcopejourneys.com/page/journeys/on-the-trail-of-genghis-
khan/)

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rplnt
The share functionality over the video blocks me from allowing that particular
flash to load/play. So I can either enable all plugins or not watch the
embedded video at all. Just a thought for web developers.

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ygra
His (more or less) regular blog posts along the way are also quite interesting
at times. Plus: plenty of nice pictures.

[http://www.thelongestway.com/](http://www.thelongestway.com/)

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archagon
Here's the FAQ: [http://www.thelongestway.com/frequently-asked-
questions](http://www.thelongestway.com/frequently-asked-questions)

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carsonreinke
I highly suggest reading `The Places in Between`
([https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95643.The_Places_in_Betw...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95643.The_Places_in_Between))
about something similar.

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kyrra
Note, if you look at the actual Vimeo page[0], this was originally posted on
May 13, 2009.

[0] [http://vimeo.com/4636202](http://vimeo.com/4636202)

~~~
unreal37
And he did the walk in 2007/2008...

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1986v
Is that 3000 miles with or without backtracking to pick up the camera he often
walked by?

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ilovecookies
more reddit stuff horay.

BTW this video is super old. Was going around alot on facebook at the time.

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infecto
Fun to watch ancient videos resurface.

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the1
that's about a month's distance to run for a normal long distance runners (90
miles/week).

~~~
daliusd
About all commenters making fun of you. You meant 7 months (33 weeks).
Ultramarathon each day is beyond capabilities of any living (or dead) man on
this planet.

~~~
zxcdw
I wouldn't be so sure. There's this woman[1] who ran 366 marathons in a year
-- that is one per day and two durnig the last day of the year since she
started. (And despite the interview was done after she had ran 100 marathons,
she finished her project last July with 366 marathons as intended.) Yes, it's
not ultramarathons, but I guess she still stretches the boundaries what some
of us would consider humans being capable of.

That's almost 15450 kilometers in a year(~9550 miles).

1: [http://blog.endomondo.com/2012/11/07/annette-
fredskov-366-ma...](http://blog.endomondo.com/2012/11/07/annette-
fredskov-366-marathons-in-365-days/)

~~~
daliusd
Well, I think marathon each day is possible. I believe that's not far from
what average persistence hunter runs a day (I have not checked my facts
however). Running 3-4 times that is impossible IMHO. I have found this:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
Transcendence_3100_Mile_Ra...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
Transcendence_3100_Mile_Race)

It is 60 miles / day. Maybe it is upper limit?

