The Route
Where am I going?
An open map before me
My route is flexibility itself, and I’ve no plans to walk the most efficient path. This is not a race. If a country allows me plenty of time within its borders, I’ll meander as I see fit. That said, the start of my trip covers Western Europe, somewhere I’m intimately familiar with, and so I won’t hang around to begin with. Besides, I don’t like cold weather and so I’ll be moving southwards as fast as I can.
Route-wise, this is what I know for sure: I’ll start from Port St Mary on the Isle of Man on the 1st April 2022 – yes, appropriately enough, April Fool’s Day – and finish (hopefully!) in the same place several years later.
Port St Mary, my start point
After catching a boat to the mainland I’ll then walk across England, catch the ferry to France and amble through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and then probably Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. However I get there, I consider Istanbul to be my first checkpoint.
Istanbul is Checkpoint 1
Beyond this is unplanned. I hope to include India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, South Korea and Japan. And then there’s Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. From there its South America, Central America and North America, hopefully finishing that leg in New York before heading back to Europe, possibly via Africa, to complete the entire journey.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’ll be a challenge enough to reach Checkpoint 1.