20 Longest Journeys Ever Undertaken on Foot

From Horizon to Horizon

There’s something almost mythic about walking for weeks, months, or even years. These sorts of odysseys test your body, your mind, and even your patience, with every step instilling a lesson in perspective. When you undertake a journey of great magnitude, you invariably meet strangers who shape you and notice details that speed often erases: the curve of a river, the smell of baked bread in a tiny village, the way wind shifts across the grassy plains. And sometimes, the reason behind the journey matters more than the distance itself. Here are twenty of the longest, most extraordinary journeys ever undertaken on foot.

woman walking on street surrounded by buildings Timo Stern on Unsplash

1. Dave Kunst

His journey of 14,450 miles across four continents began in 1970 in Waseca, Minnesota, when Kunst and his brother John dreamt up a simple goal: to become the first people to walk all the way around the Earth. When John died in a tragic mountaineering accident, his brother undertook the four-year journey in his honor.

man standing on mountain beside trees Robert Bye on Unsplash

2. Karl Bushby

In 1998, he set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, with the absurdly ambitious goal of walking all the way around the world without using any form of transport, and to eventually end back at his front door in England. He’s still walking. As of the last update, Bushby has covered more than 20,000 miles, his trek stretching across decades and continents.

person standing on gray rock Ashley Knedler on Unsplash

3. George Meegan

Between 1977 and 1983, he walked 19,019 miles from the windswept tip of South America—Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego—all the way to the icy edge of Alaska. The journey took six years, and over the course of it, he was robbed, bitten by insects the size of thumbnails, and at one point, nearly died from dysentery.

person hiking above mountain overlooking river Joel & Jasmin Førestbird on Unsplash

4. Robert Garside

Garside, a British psychology student, wasn’t content with just walking the world—he wanted to run it. Starting in 1997, he set out to become the first person to run around the planet. By the time he finished, years later, he’d covered over 40,000 miles and crossed six continents.

man on pathway between trees Josh Hild on Unsplash

5. Ffyona Campbell

She began her journey in 1983, at just sixteen, walking the entire length of Britain from John o’ Groats to Land’s End. The next leg of her expedition took her across America, Australia, Africa, and Europe. By the time she finished, she’d covered over 19,000 miles across four continents, making her the first woman to walk around the world.

a man standing on a rock overlooking a valley with trees and mountains Brandon Zacharias on Unsplash

6. Andrew “Drew” Robinson

He began in northern Canada, where the tundra stretches on so far it seems to outpace the horizon itself. When he crossed into the U.S., he followed no mapped route. By the time Robinson reached South America, his walk had turned into something almost spiritual. When he finally reached Tierra del Fuego, he had walked 16,000 miles.

man wearing black backpack standing beside trees Clay Banks on Unsplash

7. Jennifer Pharr Davis

Her journey led her 2,200 miles along the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, through driving rain, thick blankets of fog, and an aching hunger so deep it rivaled the loneliness of the forest trail. Years later, she returned to do it again. And again. On her third attempt, she set a record-breaking pace and completed the trail in 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes.

a woman walking down a path in the woods Kevin Wolf on Unsplash

8. Steve Newman

He started in the late 1980s, back when traveling meant postcards, pay phones, and hand-drawn maps. By the time he finished, he’d walked 15,000 miles across four continents, often alone, sometimes hungry—always curious.

people walking on pathway near brown mountain under white clouds during daytime Katie McBroom on Unsplash

9. Dave McNally

McNally’s journey across the Sahara Desert started in the early 2000s and wasn’t the sort of adventure that would be considered comfortable. He packed lightly: a few liters of water, a map, and enough dried food to last between sparse desert outposts. To cross the 2,300-mile desert, McNally learned to walk at dawn and dusk, sleeping during the punishing heat.

man in gray hoodie carrying backpack walking under the sun Alexis Antoine on Unsplash

10. Carl Stearns Clancy

Born in 1912 in the age of steamboats and telegrams, Clancy decided to walk 18,000 miles, circling the globe in a time when the world still felt unknowable. His reason was pure, unruly curiosity. By the time he returned to New York, his clothes were threadbare, and his view of the world completely changed.

Mathew Thomas Mathew Thomas on Pexels

11. Slavomir Rawicz

According to his memoir The Long Walk, he and six fellow prisoners escaped a Siberian gulag in 1941 and trekked 4,000 miles south to freedom. Their journey led them through the Arctic wastes of Siberia, through the Gobi Desert, across the Himalayas into India, where they at last found freedom.

a man standing on a rock overlooking a body of water Jakub Červenka on Unsplash

12. Steve Cannon

Cannon lived according to a simple philosophy: if you want to know a place, walk it. He believed that cars flatten geography, and planes erase it altogether. He walked across America several times, covering over 6,000 miles in total.

man in black jacket and blue denim shorts with black hiking backpack standing on mountain during lucas Favre on Unsplash

13. Jean Béliveau

On his 45th birthday, Béliveau kissed his wife goodbye in Montreal, slung on a small backpack, and started walking. He didn’t stop for over a decade, crossing 64 countries and a total of 46,600 miles.

man on top of the mountain during daytime Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

14. Ray Zahab

Zahab traversed the Sahara and the Gobi with minimal gear and maximum grit. He later founded impossible2Possible, an organization that brings young people on remote expeditions to teach science, resilience, and global awareness.

a man walking across a sandy desert with mountains in the background Brad Stell on Unsplash

15. Helga Krapf

Her journey began modestly, somewhere in Bavaria, with a sturdy pair of boots and the romantic notion to walk from her hometown to the far edges of Europe. Her journey took her across twelve thousand miles of backroads and forgotten paths. By the time she reached the Atlantic, she’d filled dozens of journals with a catalogue of memorable moments.

woman hiking on mountain lucas Favre on Unsplash

16. Paul Salopek

Paul Salopek’s journey might be the most quietly ambitious walk ever attempted. A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, he set out in 2013 to walk the world in the footsteps of our earliest ancestors. From Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley, he began a 24,000-mile trek tracing the path humans took as they spread across the globe.

a man running up a mountain with a sky background NEOM on Unsplash

17. Hiroo Inoue

A Japanese traveler with the demeanor of a monk and the endurance of a marathoner, he set out to walk thousands of miles across his country. His journey led him through rice paddies where frogs sang in the dusk, up narrow mountain roads that smelled of pine and rain, and across coastlines beaten silver by wind and surf.

a person standing on top of a mountain at sunset NEOM on Unsplash

18. Rosemary Bailey

Her journey led her 2,500 miles along the quiet paths once worn smooth by monks, merchants, and pilgrims. Rather than focus on the popular trails, she traced the forgotten ones: the Camino de Santiago, the Via Francigena, and the old Roman byways that once pulsed with life.

person carrying yellow and black backpack walking between green plants Holly Raven (Mandarich) on Unsplash

19. Serge Girard

This French endurance athlete spent decades crossing Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Americas on foot, one relentless step at a time. All in all, he walked and ran over 27,000 miles.

man in black jacket and black backpack walking on green grass field during daytime Davide Sacchet on Unsplash

20. Mark Beaumont

Mark Beaumont is usually pictured on a bike with his helmet gleaming and tires spinning. But before (and between) his record-setting cycling, he’d return to his native Scotland and walk. All in all, he walked thousands of miles, quietly, without fanfare.

Oziel Gómez Oziel Gómez on Pexels