Ever wanted to go for a really, really, really long walk?

September 20, 2004 9:23 AM

Ever wanted to go for a really, really, really long walk? Just to make it difficult, how about carrying something really, really heavy (in more than a few ways...) to some rather unfriendly places... Meet interesting people, get famous, predict the future, accumulate amazing numbers, get the real deal on shoes... Even kids can play.What else would one expect from a hippie priest with a recording career that took him From Sunset Strip to the Whitehouse? And, of course, the final frontier. via my friend who loves metafilter but lacks an account
posted by UlfMagnet (9 comments total)

hmmm, seems like the site went for a really really long walk...
posted by moonbird at 9:34 AM on September 20, 2004

"We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return, prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and neversee them again–if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man–then you are ready for a walk."

– Henry David Thoreau, Walking
posted by weston at 10:12 AM on September 20, 2004

When I hiked the AT in 1996, I got e-mail from a guy who walked around the world (I brought a laptop and maintained a blog, before we had that word). I think he went with his brother, who ended up being killed by bandits in the middle east. It took him something like 3 years, IIRC.
posted by waldo at 10:23 AM on September 20, 2004

google cache of farked site:

The Official Web Site of
The Man Who Carried The Cross Around The World in Every Nation
The World's Longest Walk
as listed in the
Guinness Book of Records

Now 301 NATIONS, 36,453 MILES (58,664 KM)
34 YEARS and still WALKING!
Started Christmas 1969!
posted by ZippityBuddha at 10:25 AM on September 20, 2004

Hmm, this might be interesting if the site hadn't been beaten into a bloody pulp and is no longer responding.

Oh well. Maybe I'll go for a walk and come back to check it later.
posted by fenriq at 10:34 AM on September 20, 2004

while fascinating, if I had to choose I think this long journey is more my style
posted by m@ at 11:13 AM on September 20, 2004

How coincidental, I came across this while browsing the Guinness Book of Records yesterday. I found one factoid interesting: His cross has been refused overnight refuge in half the churches he asked, but never once from a bar or nightclub.
posted by doozer_ex_machina at 3:42 AM on September 21, 2004

Amazing.
posted by Turtle at 9:01 AM on September 21, 2004

And very nice post, by the way. There's no way I would have explored the weird, goofy, scary-looking web site. But the links in the post were just the thing to see some good pictures and stories.
posted by Turtle at 9:06 AM on September 21, 2004