Longest Solo or Duo Walks : International : Adventures

Jean Béliveau

• Length: 46,600 miles (75,000 km)
• Date: August 2000-October 2011
• Miles walked per month: 348 miles (560 km)
• Details: Setting out from Montreal, the Canadian small business owner covered some 46,600 miles (75,000 km) and wore out 49 pairs of shoes while walking through 64 countries. He met four Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Nelson Mandela in South Africa. His walk raised awareness for children who suffer from violence, with the start of the project coinciding with a similarly themed United Nations initiative. He pushed a three-wheeled stroller carrying food and supplies such as a tent and returned to Montreal to a welcome of several hundred people.

Peace Pilgrim

• Length: 43,500 miles (70,000 km)
• Date: January 1953-July 1981
• Miles walked per month: 128 miles (206 km)
• Details: Citing the need for a pilgrim to make a strong statement against militarism during the Korean War, Mildred Norman changed her name to Peace Pilgrim in 1953 and walked continuously back and forth across the U.S. She kept walking until her death in 1981, ironically in a car accident after she accepted a ride to a speaking engagement. She stopped counting miles after reaching 25,000 miles (40,000 km) but estimated she covered 1,500 miles (2,400 km) per sneakers and wore out 29 pairs.

Ignacio Dean Mouliaá

• Length: 20,505 miles (33,000 km)
• Date: March 2013-March 2016
• Miles walked per month: 570 miles (920 km)
• Details: Nicknamed “Nacho Dean,” Mouliaá walked across several continents to raise awareness for environmental causes. Leaving his native Spain, he traveled through 31 countries, pushing some food and supplies on a trekking tricycle. He survived violent attacks in Mexico, Peru and El Salvador, as well as a dog bite in Honduras.

George Meegan

• Length: 19,019 miles (30,608 km)
• Date: January 1977-September 1983
• Miles walked per month: 238 miles (383 km)
• Details: George Meegan, a British adventurer and former Merchant Navy seaman hiked across two continents, from the southern tip of South America at Tierra Del Fuego to the northernmost part of Alaska. He said he made the walk as a “celebration of freedom” and because he wasn't aware of anyone completing such a continuous journey along the two continents before. A few months into the project, he married Yoshiko Matsumoto of Japan in Argentina, and she accompanied him on part of the way. She returned to Japan twice to have their children, and the family travelled to be with him for the final leg.

Konstantin Rengarten

• Length: 16,700 miles (26,900 km)
• Date: August 1894-September 1898
• Miles walked per month: 341 miles (549 km)
• Details: The highly educated Russian spent a decade preparing for what some belief was the first true walk around the world. Starting from Riga, he paid his own way and didn't claim to be lured by a bet or dare, as some world walkers did. His route included South Russia, Iran, Armenia, Siberia, Mongolia, Japan, the US, France and Germany. He wrote regular reports to newspapers and didn't change his story.

Steven Newman

• Length: 15,509 miles (24,959 km)
• Date: April 1983-April 1987
• Miles walked per month: 323 miles (520 km)
• Details: Journalist Steven M. Newman crossed 21 countries on a four-year solo walk. His motive was a “deep urge to find out if (the world) was really such a terrible place as everybody was saying.” He concluded that it wasn't, even though he was arrested several times, attacked by bandits and a drunken construction worker, and had to fend off wild boars and other creatures.

David Kunst

• Length: 14,450 miles (23,260 km)
• Date: June 1970-October 1974
• Miles walked per month: 278 miles (447 km)
• Details: With a mule and hero send-off, brothers John and David Kunst started walking from Minnesota to New York and then through Europe, with a goal of completing the first verified walk around the Earth. They also raised funds for UNICEF, although some questioned whether that had a pure motive. In Afghanistan, they were attacked by bandits, and John was shot and killed. David was also shot but survived by acting like he was dead. After returning to Minnesota for a few months to recuperate, David continued with another brother, Peter, from the point where John had died. They were denied access to the Soviet Union and China, and southeast Asia was wracked with war. So they flew from India to Australia. Peter left the project after developing leg problems, so David walked alone with a mule, which died, causing him to have to push supplies with a cart. An Australian teacher aided him, and he later married her, even though he had three children with a Minnesota woman who supported his walk, Guinness World Records cited his accomplishment as the “first verified achievement” of circumnavigating the planet.

Prem Kumar

• Length: 10,500 miles (16,900 km)
• Date: October 1982-August 1986
• Miles walked per month: 228 miles (367 km)
• Details: As founder of social service organizations in India, Prem Kumar walked to raise awareness for peace and development in poorer countries. He then organised walks in India involving participants from other countries.

Louis Michael Figueroa

• Length: 7,500 miles (12,100 km)
• Date: January 2005-June 2005, June 2010-January 2011
• Miles walked per month: 536 miles (863 km)
• Details: Walking for victims of child abuse in January 2005, Figueroa was forced to stop after six months due to legal issues and complications from leukemia. He started again in 2010 and finished the circumference route around the US in Tucson, Arizona. In 1982, Figueroa ran across the country in just 60 days to raise funds for cancer victims. He walked across the country to raise funds for AIDS victims in 1996.