Three young men are walking across Britain with no money, living wild and relying on the hospitality of strangers. Are they just eccentric – or have they rediscovered a simpler life we could all learn from?
“People love the idea of what we’re doing,” says Ed, a fresh-faced 27-year-old who, with his brother Ginger, 25, and their friend Will, 26, resolved three years ago to see if it would be possible to leave home without money or mobile phones and travel across Britain by foot.
Britain has the lowest levels of pedestrian travel and bicycle use in Europe. Twice as many trips are made by car as by walking and cycling, and from 1992 to 2004 the number of journeys by foot and bicycle declined by a fifth. All of this despite the fact that the average speed for cars across London remains at 11-13mph, roughly the same as it was at the beginning of the 20th century.
According to Catherine Conway, founder of the new anti-waste food company Unpackaged, the future lies in, “No more driving to the supermarket, no more massive supply chains; instead locally sourced food that’s purchased by people who use their legs.”
Whether walking for a living and singing for one’s supper catches on as a lifestyle choice remains to be seen, but Ed, Will and Ginger have no plans to settle down. They’re setting up a website to document the journey and share the skills they learn along the way, and they hope to make a documentary on it too – they’re aiming to find a benefactor for this by offering hand delivery of wax-sealed letters from one part of the country to another, like extremely slow messenger boys of old.
Ed and Ginger admit their family have expressed “the usual parental worries” about their future, but insist that, rather than dropping out, they are taking on a life that requires hard work and is hugely rewarding – and ultimately beneficial for the country at large.
“People ask us why we’re doing this, and we don’t really have an answer,” concludes Will. “Are we trying to save the world, or become famous, or pretend to be Robin Hood? We don’t know. But there’s one thing that we’ve learned about this life that we’d like to share: it’s much easier than you think.”
– from guardian, A Walk Around Britain