

Going for a seven-year walk - akandiah
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20902355

======
wololo
His route takes him through hundreds of miles of Arctic tundra. As someone who
has spent time in the far north:

 _Walking on tundra is like walking on a head of cabbage that is sitting on a
four-inch sponge that is floating in four inches of water. The cabbage heads
are all about eight inches apart. When you step on them, they are going to
twist in some unknown direction and slide your foot onto the sponge, or into
the four inches of water. The really bad tundra, known as bottom, is about
eight inches deep and is sitting on top of sucking mud._
\--[http://whiterick.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/dalton-highway-
car...](http://whiterick.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/dalton-highway-caribou-hunt-
tundra-torture/)

 _Stepping on a tussock is like stepping on a toothbrush, Toolik scientists
like to say. You try to avoid it. So tundra walking is like treading on the
jostling shoulders of a million people_
\--<http://discovermagazine.com/1996/jun/runningontundra787>

 _Tundra comes in three exciting flavors: bog tundra, high alpine tundra, and
original tundra. They say walking on tundra is like walking on bowling balls
covered in something squishy_
\--[http://mattylite.blogspot.com/2010/07/alaska-fact-or-
fiction...](http://mattylite.blogspot.com/2010/07/alaska-fact-or-fiction.html)

 _hiking on tundra forces you into a gait that is not like walking on pavement
(straight up and down)... tundra is more liking walking on a waterbed... you
are using lots of the accessory muscles just to keep upright_
\--[http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/72728-Boo...](http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/72728-Boot-
recommendations-for-September-Caribou-in-Kotz)

 _"Walking on tundra is like, is like,--tell him what it's like, Magee." "It's
like walking over slippery footballs half-sunk in slime," said the Irishman
promptly._ \--[http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/b/23082-the-boy-
with-t...](http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/b/23082-the-boy-with-the-u-s-
survey-by-rolt-wheeler?start=110)

 _For those of you who haven't walked across the tundra it is a giant sponge.
When you walk your foot sinks and you have to lift it really high to get the
next step, as some put it..walking on tundra is like walking on a giant stair
stepper._ \--[http://nicholiepoki03.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-to-
remember....](http://nicholiepoki03.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-to-
remember.html)

 _walking on the tundra can be a miserable experience. extremely uneven (kinda
like walking on basketballs), wet, and full of holes. make sure you have good
waterproof footwear with good ankle support rolling an ankle is very easy on
this stuff._
\--[http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/115323-Tr...](http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/115323-Trekking-
Poles-on-the-Tundra)

~~~
tobiasu
I was going to disagree with you, because there are obviously walkable roads
in Siberia. However, the route as shown on the map goes straight through
absolute no man's land. There is no road along the eastern coast. A sensible
route would be Yakutsk - Magadan, then take a boat or plane to the US.

I would love to read the story of someone who walked from Siberia to Alaska
via the shortest sea crossing possible. But above Magadan, there are no more
roads. And the Kolyma highway to Magadan is considered a major adventure
already, with only a small window where the rivers are low enough to be
crossed by motorcycle (and therefore, man).

I'm not saying this can't be done, but it looks like a serious arctic
expedition to me. Which I kind of doubt he will do. This is probably going to
end like usual. Helpful Russian truck drivers take him with them for as far as
they can go, then (Mommy!!) a helicopter shows up...

~~~
wpapper
I had the privilege of seeing Salopek announce the project at the Knight Civic
Media conference, and based on his presentation I can tell you that he is not
taking this lightly. This isn't a project that he decided to do on a whim
without evaluating the risks. This is a very well-planned, calculated project
that desires to not only be fascinating, but also to make a statement on
journalism itself. He won't compromise the integrity of it. Of course, there
will be people aiding him along the way out of necessity (translators, guides,
etc), but I guarantee you there won't be a helicopter or truck involved.

~~~
tobiasu
Out of curiosity, I skipped through his talk. He says he will leave
Vladivostok on a research vessel and cross the North Pacific that way.

If that is not the proverbial "truck", I don't know what is. I don't blame
him, but National Geographic/BBC should really know better than publish such
misleading maps.

------
krutulis
_"There is an actual neurological basis to what I am talking about...You can
make a pretty good evolutionary argument that this was how we were designed to
absorb information at about 5km an hour (3mph)"_

For me walking is more conducive to careful thinking than any other activity,
and taking a walk has frequently proven to be the best way to work on my
hardest problems, deepest mysteries, and most stressful situations. Do others
walk to think?

Having worked with several startups over the past 16 years, I'll make the
observation that I've been in a tiny minority on this count, and I find myself
wondering what kind of situational & cultural biases in the startup world work
against walking as a way of thinking. Keyboards, cars, commutes, an obsession
with faster-is-better, craving novelty, fear of "missing the window." What
else?

~~~
IsaacL
I saw that same quote, and thought about my walk a few years back, across the
breadth of the UK (Wales to London). I do feel like I have a better intuitive
grasp of the size of it now -- much better than you get from driving or taking
the train.

~~~
krutulis
Serious walking definitely changes one's perspective. I don't feel comfortable
in a place until I've learned to get around on foot.

------
eCa
Hopefully he'll be more lucky with the russian visa than Karl Bushby [1],
who's been hiking in the other direction. Unfortunately most information on
his site has been removed.

[1] <http://www.odysseyxxi.com/>

------
Tharkun
Maybe we should all make such a pilgrimage during our lifetimes. It's bound to
be an amazing eye-opener.

~~~
jonsen
Or a seven-year tour through a library (before they are all gone).

------
SageRaven
I've always dreamed of taking a year or more to walk the back-roads of the US
and visit all 48 contiguous states on foot. The technical challenge of
plotting a route to traverse each state exactly once is appealing in its own
right.

~~~
japhyr
I rode a bicycle 14,000 miles around the perimeter of North America in my
twenties. It was one of the defining experiences in my life. Everyone was
pushing me towards graduate school, but I chose that trip instead. It was the
right decision.

~~~
kibwen
This sounds fascinating. How did you prepare? What did you do for food and
shelter?

~~~
japhyr
That's a funny question. The preparation started when I turned 16, and kept
bicycling even after I got a driver's license. I moved to NYC, and started
bicycle commuting 5 miles each way from Manhattan to the Bronx. I became very
comfortable in traffic.

I teach, so one summer I decided to ride cross-country. I did that two summers
in a row; WA-ME one year, and CA-GA the next year.

I had thought of doing the Alaska-Tierra del Fuego trip, but a friend wanted
to do another cross country ride. I did that ride, WA to ME again via northern
Canada, and then continued on to FL, CA, and AK.

Most of the preparation for each trip was just a bit of extra riding in the
months building up. These months-long trips are actually easier to get ready
for physically than week-long trips, because you can take the first few weeks
easy and use the first part of your trip as training.

I slept outside in a tent. There are places to hide a tent and a bicycle
everywhere, and if you're stuck you can almost always find someone willing to
let you pitch a tent in their yard for the night. Although that gets
interesting sometimes...

~~~
kibwen
Thanks for the response. This really does sound like it could make for a good
book. :)

------
bfe
As cool as this is, the original humans probably did most of this route by
boat along the coast. They had to have done the hop to Australia by boat circa
45,000 years ago; they probably crossed the Red Sea by boat; and why else
would the diaspora have been so fast along thousands of miles of coast
relative to expansion inland?

------
kareemm
There's something appealing (romantic, even) about a project with such a long
time horizon when the focus today seems to be on speeding up.

------
danso
It's fun reading about other trips across the world, even if they weren't all
done on foot.

Journalist Nellie Bly held the world record for fastest time in 1890,
traveling the world unchaperoned in 72 days
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly>

~~~
celias
Thomas Stevens rode a penny-farthing bicycle west-to-east around the world in
1884-86, followed by Frank Lenz's east-to-west attempt on a two-wheeled
bicycle in the early 1890's -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stevens_(cyclist)>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lenz_(cyclist)>

------
jcampbell1
Who is this guy? This trip is going to be more challenging than ascending Mt
Everest. Unless this guy is an extreme adventure hiker, this is going to end
badly or he is going to quit. I hope for his sake he gives up early.

If this were a trip planned by someone like Andrew Skurka, then I'd believe
it, but this is a journalist with a crazy plan.

