found in a San Diego parking lot

only 10 men are known to have walked around the world, that is defined as walking more than 21,000 miles and at least crossing 4 continents. Tom Turcich walked 28,000 miles and became the 10th and most recent, and it took him 7 years

He decided to walk to Argentina for the first leg of his trip. Shortly before he was due to leave he met Tom Marchetty, who customized a baby buggy for his travels. The buggy would hold all his essentials – tent, sleeping bag, laptop, camera, batteries, plastic food crate (partly to hold his food, partly to insulate the smell from animals), water bottles, six pairs of socks, four pairs of underwear, a pair of trousers, a pair of shorts, long-sleeved shirt and short-sleeved shirt, wool shirt, hoodie, jacket and waterproof shoes.

Savannah, his rescue dog, met him soon after he began, and was with him for the last 25,000 miles, they travelled through 38 countries and crossed every continent except Australia, which he could not do because of lockdown restrictions. 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/11/the-man-who-walked-around-the-world-tom-turcich-seven-year-search-meaning-of-life

and a 3 wheel baby stroller that has made a 28,000 mile around the world trip, is really cool, and deserves a place on the blog, along with Tom's story. 

See his Instagram of photos from his incredible journey (read his story above) https://www.instagram.com/theworldwalk/

in 1919 there was a £10,000 prize offered to the first Australians to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days. Of the 6 entries that started the race, brothers Keith and Ross Smith accomplished it in 28 days, in a Vickers Vimy bomber

In May 1919, the Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Defense in consultation with the Royal Aero Club, stated that valid aircrews must all be Australian nationals, the aircraft must have been constructed in the British Empire, and the journey must be completed within 720 consecutive hours  before midnight on 31 December 1920. 

The reporting points were at Alexandria and Singapore, and final destination in the region of Darwin.

https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+18/1

As few people owned aircraft capable of such a flight, AND had the financial ability, the airplane companies sponsored teams. The flight also carried the first overseas airmail to Australia.

Vickers entered a converted Vimy bomber (G-EAOU) (the registration being whimsically said to stand for "God 'elp all of us"), crewed by Captain Ross Smith with his brother Lieutenant Keith Smith as co-pilot and mechanics Sergeant Wally Shiers and Sergeant Jim Bennett.

Ross Smith was one of Australia’s most decorated airmen of WWI. He was even Lawrence of Arabia’s pilot!

 

The Vimy flew via Lyon France, Rome Italy, Cairo Egypt, Damascus Syria, Basra Iraq, Karachi Delhi and Calcutta India, Akyab and Rangoon racetrack in Burma, to Bangkok in Siam, Jakarta and Surabaya  Indonesia, then to Singapore.

Keep in mind, there was no guarantee of fuel at landing, or food, or radio comms, or even a landing strip!  This entire flight was dead reckoning navigation, with a compass... and wind speed indicator. No altimeter, no auto pilot

From Singapore the route ran through Java to Uching, at Sourabaya, and to Anatopo in Timor, the last stopping place, 500 miles from Darwin.

The Smith brothers' flight was not without problems, in Surabaya the aircraft was bogged to the axles.

Locals from the nearby village dismantled their huts and began to lay the bamboo and reed mats on the field. One day and many mats later, G-EAOU headed down the 1,200-foot runway on the home stretch.

But far worse awaited them in Australia. 

In Cairo, following a safe crossing of the Mediterranean, a crack opened up in one of the cooling water pipes and had to be sealed. More repairs followed in Iraq. The reward was a few days of fair weather and a chance to soar above the Taj Mahal.

The trip from Darwin to Sydney took almost twice as long as the flight to Australia. The Vimy was forced down at Cobbs Creek, with a split propeller.

 In 52 degree heat, the mechanics toiled for three days to make repairs, gluing wood splinters into the shattered end and reshaping it using glass from a broken bottle. They made another unscheduled landing near Charleville, when their out-of-balance port engine exploded. This repair alone took 50 days.

Before the crew were allowed to leave the machine, they had to be examined by the Quarantine officer

One of the mechanics summed up his views of the journey as a whole by saying that he would not do it gain for £100,000. "Believe me," he said, "It was no joy ride. The engines went well, but of course, we had to work practically every night at one thing or another. However, it's all right now."

Shiers and Bennett received the new Air Force Medal bar and became honorary lieutenants.

 The prize money was shared between the Smith brothers and the two mechanics. The Smith brothers each received a knighthood for this exploit.

After arriving in Australia, the Smiths, Bennett and Shiers flew to Point Cook, Victoria. 

On 19 March 1920 it was formally handed over from Vickers to Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, on behalf of the Commonwealth. The handover caused something of an outcry, Hughes apparently being the only member of the Government who was aware of the arrangement! 

The Prime Minister immediately gave the crew permission to fly the aircraft to their home town of Adelaide. In 1921 the aircraft was entered on the RAAF Register as A5-1 (the only Vimy to officially serve with the RAAF). 

At the time, the flight from London to Australia was the longest in the history of the world

https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/aviation-australia/vickers-vimy#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_England_to_Australia_flight

https://www.smh.com.au/national/from-the-archives-1919-first-flight-from-england-to-australia-20191107-p53895.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/albums/72157712126795033

https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/articles/commemorating-the-first-england-to-australia-flight

https://vwma.org.au/explore/memorials/5

https://www.adelaideairport.com.au/vickers-vimy/discover/the-vickers-vimy/

On 8 January 1920, Lt Ray Parer, with co-pilot Lt John McIntosh, were sponsored by millionaire Peter Dawson, a whisky manufacturer, who financed the purchase of the machine and much of the journey. They completed the flight, the first by a single-engined machine, in an epic 206 days later on 2 August 1920, earning Parer the nickname "Battling Ray". 

Although outside the time limit, the crew was awarded a consolation prize of £A1,000.

They were the only other aircraft that completed the trip.

The DH.9 has been restored and placed on display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra. 

Only two original Vimy aircraft remain in the world – Alcock and Brown’s Vimy at the British Science Museum and the Smith crew’s Vimy at Adelaide Airport.

in 1994, the flight was recreated http://www.vimy.org/flights/flights2.htm with a new built Vimy.

Unlike the 1919 Australian team, it took hours planning routes that skirted restricted areas of the Middle East. Deviating from the 1919 flight path, they avoided Syria, Iraq, and Iran and instead flew through Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. Reaching Karachi, Pakistan, was trouble free, but border conflicts temporarily prevented the Vimy from crossing into India. Due to an outbreak of the plague in India, Myanmar denied permission to enter the country. Defying the authorities, Peter and Lang turned off the Vimy’s radio and landed in Yangon anyway.

Over Sumatra, dense smoke from slash and burn fires forced them to fly only 200 feet above the jungle so they could see the ground. Even worse, the right engine acted up again, then stopped completely. The Vimy was unable to maintain height on one engine, and was brought down in a rice field, just hundreds miles from where the original G-EAOU sunk in the mud. 

The circumstances were uncannily similar to the situation confronted by the Smith brothers. The local farmers helped to construct an airfield. A new engine and other parts were flown in on a twin-engine plane lent by the Australian Army. Six days after the crew faced disaster, the Vimy was again on its way to Australia.

a world traveler who had driven through 52 countries on four continents, during 11 years, visiting Ford dealers, such as the LAA van Hamersveld company here.

https://www.archiefeemland.nl/bronnen/foto-s/detail/4ef21aaa-dc46-11df-a9e7-7590f0316edd

Dean was biking around Europe, when in Dec 2018 he came across a stray cat in Bosnia that someone had abandoned. He saved a wonderful cat! Then he began photographing and video recording their travels, and now they have a book

His You Tube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1oHb5i_2GsyefbSPjW-SMQ 

and the Instagram page is https://www.instagram.com/1bike1world

this guy did some serious around the world traveling with his scooter and side car in 1956

Notice in the 1st photo, above, that there is no writing on the sidecar fender, not yet. No stickers on the sidecar pod. Not yet. Compare that to the way it looks in the below photo, somewhere in Colorado

I see stickers for Arizona and Oregon, and that is a long drive, but compared to the Holland to Hong Kong through India? He did a whole lot of miles on that scooter

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iisg/albums/72157622841573224  for the whole adventure, 400 photos

looks like a continent or two of traveling has been accomplished with this Willys. Photo from 1957

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iisg/4225028615/

1962, Japan

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iisg/with/4225028615/

My uncle came across this today in Thailand, an international traveling truck that hit a lot of countries in 2019! Looks like they are heading around the world

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Personal-Blog/Hakuna-Matata-412461772488540/
https://leshakunamatata.jimdofree.com/le-camion/

Dave recommends a solo bike riding adventure world exploring video blog... knowing these are very cool, and not having to watch all hundred + episodes to see it's enjoyable, here's Noraly to show you the world:

a 30 something recent geo-chemist doctoral candidate that was getting work all over the world, who traded jobs for travel, and cash for motorcycles, and since then went to full time video blogging of the ride around Asia and Europe, then a 2nd trip from Argentina to Alaska

take a fast look at the whole trip to get a feel for it:



https://www.itchyboots.com
https://www.facebook.com/ItchyBoots
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIs9nkveW9WmYtsOcJBwTg

I was surprised to see this world traveling Jeep at SEMA! I posted about it in 2017

read about this very adventurous world traveler at
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/04/dan-is-driving-his-2011-jeep-wrangler.html

I accidentally came across Iohan's latest video, you may recall that he was biking from far Northern Canada to far Southern Argentina, and he's nearly there, 2 years after I posted about him the first time

he's not traveling with a baby alpaca, but he did stop to visit with one while getting groceries in Peru

and found a train wreck no one went back for. Not even salvagers go that far from town to get wrecked trains

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/02/johan-is-biking-all-over-north-american.html for my first post about him, when he'd biked from Canada to Mexico

for his youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/istarusIG/videos

globe riding... what we could do if we'd done some thing when we were young to make plenty of money and were getting residuals the rest of our lives

https://silodrome.com/adventure-sidecar-tips-helge-pedersen/

Jeeping overland across the Democratic Republic of Congo

It's been National Bike Month... and here is some historical biking across the USA, it was a lot more common than I thought

Mellen C. Plummer in 1925, at the age of 66, rode cross country from Portland, Maine, to see his brother in San Francisco, California.

 But that was no big deal because three years later he set off to ride around and through the U.S. In 1929, he changed that plan to simply ride around the perimeter of the country and challenged any amateur rider over the age of 40 to a 12,000- mile road race.

Quichi Tanaka had been traveling the world “penniless” by bicycle for eight years when he reached Boston in February, 1915. He had spent 10 months cycling around the U.S. and claimed to have ridden in 53 countries — more than 93,000 miles.

Phil and Audrey Palaske were on the road for two years, 1948-50, and planned to visit every state in the union. They had severe wanderlust and added Canada and Mexico to the itinerary

The Mascotts left their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1912 to pedal to San Francisco and return home by wheel, hoping to set a record for a tandem tour. For some unex - plained reason, they turned south at Denver, headed to Texas and rode through the south and up the East Coast on their way home, and the journey took almost a year and covered nearly 10,000 miles.

They also walked across the continent to Los Angeles in 1911!

there are twice as many stories of other people biking across America at
http://www.adventurecycling.org/default/assets/resources/20140601_TheEarlyCrossers_Weiss.pdf
https://www.bikeleague.org/content/bike-month-dates-events-0