walking, biking, sailing, hitchhiking 'round the world

Does anyone else dream of doing this? I've dreamed of sailing around the world since I was at least 15 (Im 27). I have met and/or read about some crazy people doing crazy trips all of the time (I am going to ramble for a sec):

In college, I had two professors, one cycled from (then) Leningrad to Athens, the other clocked over 2200 miles in W.Africa. I met this other guy who cycled from S.Africa to Cairo in 18 mos. A family of 4 that sailed around the world in 4 years. I met a 76 year old man who hiked from UK to Umbria (Italy) and was going on to who knows where. I read about an 18 year old who cycled from the Northern-most accessable road in Alaska to the tip of Argentina. Another guy literally ran around the world (took 4 years) with nothing but a backpack and his papers, he now wants to swim around the world (a woman swam accross the Atlantic using a sleeping pod attached to her ankle; he will use the same device. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3272357.stm) . Etc etc. etc.

My dream is to bike from where I am in Germany to the straight of Gilbraltar, cross over into Morrocco, bike completely around the circumference
of Africa, cross Sinai, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Austria, and back in to Germany (or something like that). I am actually serious about carry this out. If I don't have a job for next year, I going to do it!

Anyone else have similar dreams or delusions of grandeur ? Let's share! Who knows, maybe we will caravan!

 

Yeah, I've always wanted to sail around the world, or just start walking, and see where I end up.

 

My dream is to find a hundred dollar bill on the ground on the way to work every single day for the rest of my life.

 

when i earn some money, i will buy a vw-bus to travel around (i have been talking about my vw-bus for so long...). First i want to see Europe and stay at every place i like. i would like to live a vagabond life for a while until turning back to "normal life".
I know a boy, who made the whole way from Germany to Israel by bike. There he made his alternative civilian service. i would prefer the bus, i`m not fit enough for such distances by bike *lol*

 

i did a bike trip across the northern US and a little bit of Canada. started just north of Seattle, WA and ended at the beach in New Hampshire. this peaked my interest in doing other things, but in different parts of the world. i have no idea what yet, but i'd love to do something though in another part of the world though.

 

it was a great trip, lots of fun.

but, on the trip, they said we only needed some sort of ID. passport, license. i just had my permit with me. when we were at the border, they just asked if we were american. we had one french kid. the french kid was the only one subjected to having to show his ID. this was pre-9/11 here.

but, i do go up to canada, pretty much atleast once a month now to get shitfaced. at the VT/Canadian border, we only have to show some sort of ID. but i am betting that we could get away with just saying what school were from. but we still bring ID just in case. last time i went up, all we did was hand the lady our ID's, and said were from Norwich, and she just handed our ID's right back wihtout even looking at them.

 

In 2006 im gonna buy a VW Bus and travel around the US. I think itd be fun to bike across the US maybe in 10 yrs or so cause im not fit enough for it now lol

 

i''d think a expired drivers license is good enough. but i'm not sure. at your RMV, you usually can just get a state ID, i don't know how much they cost, but you can get them. either way, i wouldn't want to be driving with a expired license. or you can get a passport - which i use now, because the people at the border kept my license for some reason when i came back into the states - you can get it through a post office that does them.

and um, i didn't train for the bike trip. before the trip, i didn't even bike 10 miles in a day. so i just went out and did it. worked my ass off, but i did it.

 

my passport doesn't expire until 2012, which would be 10 years.

RMV = registry of motor vehicles

 

Passport is valid for either 1, 5 or 10 years. It depends on what kind of a passport do you have.

Anyway... awesome stories, goldmund!
I've been biking around Finland a lot. As teenagers, me and some friends spent all the summers biking wherever and camping and it was just great. Biking around Europe would be awesome as well.
And sailing around the world... That'd be such a dream come true. I love sailing so much. I've been sailing on the Meriterranean, but that's not very... extreme, I guess. It was still wonderful though. Especially the Greek Isles.. so beautiful.

My uni is organizing this charity event during spring break where a bunch of students are hitchiking all the way from here to Morocco. That sounds so amazing. I think I would have taken part in it, but I only found out about it too late.

 

That would be incredible. I've hitchiked all around the US, esp. the west coast on Grateful Dead tours in the early-mid 90s. While you do have some "interesting" encounters to say the least, you meet some great people as well. I have been wondering what it would be like to hickhike here (I am originally from San Francisco area).

It feels like the world we now find ourselves in is gripped with fear of other people and going to other places. Without being naive, I want to go just prove it can be done with the absolute least amount of money possible. Whether by bike, hitching, hikin' it, whatever it takes. Thanks all for sharing your stories too. Keep them coming!

 

Bicking Finland and sailing the greek isles would be awesome. Just for a short trip, I would like to go to Lybia too. It is soooo damn cold here right now, North Africa just sounds so nice, or perhaps Oddessa in spring (Orthodox Easter?!!).

Check out this website of a bicycling tour company that leads groups from Cairo to Cape Town: http://www.tourdafrique.com/. Still a little structured, but good to know that people do it!!!

Oh, another quick story for the ladies out there: a few years back, I met a woman in her late 40s who had traveled extensively throughout Central and South America + the Caribbean ON HER OWN for over 20 years! Just thought I'd put that out there. I know alot of the ladies are a little more weary of traveling for safety and sanitary reasons, all of which I understand, but it can be done!

 

I walked from Nain Labrador to almost island Killinek where I had to use a canoe. Then with using the canoe I crossed the opening of the Hudson bay and of Frobisher and other bodies of water. After that I paddled across the Davis detroit to enter Holsteinborg Greenland.

It was difficult and it was beautiful.

 

deleting posters makes fitzy look crazy...

 

not that far off really

 

sounds amazing! u should do it and make sure to document somehow!
goodluck on ur journey