> It's not often if you're driving around country Australia you see swagmen these days. Imagine spending more than half of your life walking. Grant Cadoret decided one day to pack up his life into a backpack and start walking.
I do similar stuff on and off, though not at that scale (trips lasting up to a year when I was young but now they're more like 2-4 months max with a year or more break in between).
what I know from personal experience is that it's incredibly difficult to stop. the routine somehow becomes all consuming and takes over your life.
a farmer once told me after losing his cow that timing for finding it is critical because leaving them isolated from the herd they will get used to it and then have problems fitting in from that point onward. they lose their ability to be part of the group and do no longer need the herd. perhaps there is a similar thing with humans.
If you successfully cover 1000 miles across a terrain alone, and found a way to not "just survive" but "thrive" it can be hard to stop (especially if there are no kids or family to return to). Why not make it 2000 miles? Why stop at all and instead break a rekord? Getting off my butt and go traveling is IMO a lot harder than stopping yourself. The isolation changes you so much you will come home crazy (you will need some way to reintegrate yourself into civilization. but there is also a beauty in not being understood since nobody can take it and the memory and experience is your treasure. there is no point of sharing it too much. even if you tried explaining it people wouldn't get it. they might get what you have seen but not how it changed you. so just enjoy it as something that belongs only to you and that only you can enjoy).
damn, now I wrote myself into a state of mind where I want to pack my rucksack and leave at once. perhaps a pandemic is a good chance to disappear for a couple of months. Europe is still too cold for now but perhaps in a month is a good time ...
Maybe this is why people who have lived alone for a some time simply get used to it and find it difficult to live with other people later (if they get into a relationship etc). Not the same, but similar
I do similar stuff on and off, though not at that scale (trips lasting up to a year when I was young but now they're more like 2-4 months max with a year or more break in between).
what I know from personal experience is that it's incredibly difficult to stop. the routine somehow becomes all consuming and takes over your life.
a farmer once told me after losing his cow that timing for finding it is critical because leaving them isolated from the herd they will get used to it and then have problems fitting in from that point onward. they lose their ability to be part of the group and do no longer need the herd. perhaps there is a similar thing with humans.
If you successfully cover 1000 miles across a terrain alone, and found a way to not "just survive" but "thrive" it can be hard to stop (especially if there are no kids or family to return to). Why not make it 2000 miles? Why stop at all and instead break a rekord? Getting off my butt and go traveling is IMO a lot harder than stopping yourself. The isolation changes you so much you will come home crazy (you will need some way to reintegrate yourself into civilization. but there is also a beauty in not being understood since nobody can take it and the memory and experience is your treasure. there is no point of sharing it too much. even if you tried explaining it people wouldn't get it. they might get what you have seen but not how it changed you. so just enjoy it as something that belongs only to you and that only you can enjoy).
damn, now I wrote myself into a state of mind where I want to pack my rucksack and leave at once. perhaps a pandemic is a good chance to disappear for a couple of months. Europe is still too cold for now but perhaps in a month is a good time ...