Mapped: The World’s Longest Continuous Walk

Ever wondered what a long, uninterrupted walk would be like? Spanning over a distance of 22,387km approximately, potentially the world’s longest walkable road starts from Cape Town and concludes its run at Russia. If you decide to set foot on this challenging trail, it will be a journey of 587 days on foot for a person walking 8 hours a day—or 194 days of non-stop continuous walking (which is practically not feasible). There will 17 countries that the traveller will cross, six time zones that will cover the journey and an experience spanning several seasons and weathers. The journey on this recently discovered longest walkable road has been compared to 13 trips up and down Mount Everest.

A Closer Look At The Journey

With its starting point at Cape Town in South Africa, this uninterrupted trail passes through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Romania and Belarus. Beginning from the coastal village of L’Agulhas and cutting through South Africa, the walk passes a few pretty-dangerous locations (with high crime rates). Your next stop Zimbabwe, a country known for its varied wildlife and difficult terrain, is both an exciting and challenging prospect to consider.

Next up on the trail are Mozambique and Zambia. A stretched hike will lead you to Uganda where you will be crossing national parks. Then you’ll enter South Sudan, which is one of the most dangerous countries of the world, with armed conflict, robberies and other crimes plaguing certain areas. Entering Sudan from there, the stretch that lies further will require crossing the Sahara desert and the tough fact here is, that there is no functional road that connects Sudan to Egypt. After walking through the entire length of Egypt, the trail first enters Jordan, then Israel, and then Syria, which is witnessing a civil war. Once out of Syria, you’ll walk through Turkey, then Georgia and finally reach Russia, experiencing the harsh Siberian winter while walking through its landmass, on your way to Magadan.

Is It Humanly Possible to Cover the Trail?

Adventurers and illustrious long-distance walkers such as George Meegan, Ffyona Campbell, Steven Newman and Dave Kunst have set remarkable records walking across the world, but this recently emerged longest walkable trail from South Africa to Russia, is still a road not taken and may well be so for the foreseeable future. There is absolutely no individual in history who has traversed the world on foot via this route. Well, as interesting as it sounds, some of the locations en route have traditionally unstable governments, additional visa restrictions and even civil war situations, added to which is the fact that an exceptional set of survival skills might be needed due to changing temperatures, terrains and changes in food availability on the way.

Started by a Reddit user’s tag, the post about ‘The Potential Longest Walkable Road’ went viral and was corrected and shared by other users reading it. Sounds like an arduous (ascending 1,17,693 metres and descending 1,17,686 metres) but an adventurous journey (experiencing 17 countries)—or does it remind you of Stephen King’s The Long Walk?