Experience: I’ve walked across three countries in a straight line | Life and style

GRaming, I loved the outdoors. I galleo in the staffing campaign with my half-brother, Greg. We used to choose a point in the distance and create “missions” to walk towards her. It was a mischievous challenge that allowed us to jump for fences, wading in rivers and sneaking around farmers.

I was also obsessed with the cards and I even read the Birmingham Az for fun. When Google Earth was released in 2005, I spent hours studying satellite images.

As we get older, the campaign adventures have become rarer. In 2018, I worked as a van pilot, but I made videos on geography and games based on cards during my free time. I found myself having a challenge.

I thought about my hedges. What if, instead of walking on a few fields, I could cross the width of an entire country – and perfectly straight line? I did not know if it was possible, but using cartography software, I traced a line through the Wales from the English border to the west coast.

Following a straight line may seem – literally – simple; The reality is anything but. Draw the wrong course and you will eventually reach rows of houses that are impossible to pass.

You are forced to sparkle or climb all obstacles. The trips took several days, so I transported food and toilet in my backpack and a tent to camp at night. I should eat, sleep and “use the toilet” without leaving the line. And even if I managed to sail in all these elements, there was always a risk that was thrown from private agricultural land.

My parents and my girlfriend, Verity, were skeptical and also concerned about my safety. They may have had a point. I did not train for my first attempt in early 2019. I was stuck on a mountain without signal, the darkness that falls and hypothermia. I had to interrupt the mission.

However, when I published the online images, I was blown away by the answer. Viewers loved stupidity and originality of the concept and recognized my joy while I jostled on the barbed wire, through rivers and through surprised sheep fields. I failed but I knew I had to keep trying.

After another attempt to fail Wales in 2020, I decided to try Norway. The north of the country is less than 30 km wide, with few farms and the right to travel – so no risk of angry farmers. But the landscape was foreign to me. On an occasion, I barely escaped a peat bog after being trapped to my size.

However, after two days, I finished it – crossing an entire country in a straight line for the first time. Verity was there at the finish line. It was amazing to share the moment with her. But I couldn’t stop there. After my first video, others began to try their own missions. In 2023, two straight lines told me that they had planned to cross Wales. At this stage, a dysfunction of the GPS had caused my third attempted failure; The idea that someone else does it first was devastating.

I designed a new route, prioritizing the mountains on agricultural land. It was longer, but I thought that avoiding farmers gave me the best chances of completion. I was right and I finished it in February of the same year, after four days. The satisfaction was incredible.

Then comes England, something that I thought for a long time that it was impossible. The route was over 100 km, twice the length of most of my previous walks. I traveled lighter and a crew followed me in a support van. We met each time my line crossed a road and I reprovisive my supplies and slept.

It was my most difficult challenge to date. A large part of the itinerary was the forest, and on the last day, I hit a sea of ​​fallen trees. The height of the battery and the sharpness of the branches meant only one shift could be fatal. I faced a heartbreaking decision: abandon the mission after six days of pain or risk my life to continue. Miraculously, I found a route by avoiding the worst and I arrived at the end. However, I am happy not to have to start again. Since then, I have become a father and my appetite for the danger has changed.

I am incredibly grateful to my viewers, whose support allowed me to make these challenges full time. I am certainly not your typical adventurer. But if I had to have a label, this is the one I would choose – after all, isn’t that the dream of each child?

As Ed Harding said

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