The map above potentially shows one of the world’s longest uninterrupted walks from Cape Town, South Africa to Magadan, Russia a distance of 22,387km (13,910 miles).
Google Maps estimates it would take 4,492 hours to walk it, which translates into 187 days of non-stop walking. If instead you decided to walk a more sensible 8 hours a day, it would take you 562 days to complete the whole walk.
Over the course of the walk you’d ascend a total of 117,693m (386,132ft) and descend 117,686m (386,109ft) – equivalent to 13 round trips up and down Everest.
You would have to travel through 16 countries including South Sudan, Syria and Georgia. So not the safest of routes.
This whole post was inspired by this post on reddit by user cbz3000.
Found a longer route, please leave it in the comments below. Want to read more about some other epic walks? Then have a look at the following books:
- The Long Walk: The True Story Of A Trek To Freedom
- 3mph: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World
- Walk of Ages: Edward Payson Weston’s Extraordinary 1909 Trek Across America
- Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
- A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
- A Walk Across America
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Tom says
By the way GEORGIA is the third safest country in Europe!
Missinformation in article.
Syed Usama says
how can you calculate distance over time?
godai says
An adult in good shape can walk 5-6 km/h on average. So you just do basic math with the distance to get the time. This is very subjective, of course, as sometimes you would go slower.
Pat says
It’s CLOSE to being the longest walkable route by why start and end there? You can start further south at L’Agulhas in South Africa, which will add 40-50km. More importantly, why would you stop at Magadan? Having come that far, surely you would push on to Naukan on the Bering Strait? You could even go south to Ozernovskiy at the tip of the Kamchatka peninsula. Either of these would add at least another 2,000 km.
Alex says
I think the person who made the map discovered what I did. Google Maps won’t make a route to Ozernovskiy. While it’s likely possible, making this in Google Maps was probably the limiting factor here. Roads seem pretty sparse in that far eastern bit of Russia. I’m sure there are roads to connect those towns but maybe they aren’t mapped well or maybe they are impermanent and are recreated as the snow freezes and thaws.
MARIA HEATON says
Wow? that’s right, if you go all over there, why not just go father?. I doubt that I would go there, me comformo with El Camino, from the south of France, all the way to Santiago de Compostlea, 500 miles/800 km. There a re a lot of hikes I would love to do, and learn more about cultures, ethnicities, languages and many other treasures. Reading, , dreaming and wondering is another way to travel, and refresh our minds, and walk every day of course. Yesterday was raining, today is a windy day, different and beautiful
Kdog says
Longest walk? What about the round trip, all around the coast, or as close to it as possible. Through south east Asia, China, India, the Arabian peninsula down through Africa, and so on? Is there a limit to the countries visited (only once?) is it a direct-ish line? If not, the possibilities are many.
Voix says
yes yes yes!
karanjeet badwal says
Well technically why don’t loop this circuit infinity and continue walking so this article is wrong. You can walk for as long as you want and keep on going. Zig zag through each country countless times.
Phoenix says
Not the longest walk the longest road
K.Rajakumaran says
Is it possible to ridee bike in this way ??
mike says
A friend rode hid mountain bike from Cape Town to Egypt/The Med – so i would say yes. If that helps. 🙂
Cason B says
Actually the longest walk woulb be from cape peninsula to denkar to bankok to france to magadan to china which is 64,152.9 kilometers which would take about 1.46370683 years.
Rolf says
Hardly a “continuous” walk. Wading across the Red Sea is not an option, a long swim seems unrealistic to me as well, so how do you walk from Hurgada to Sharm el Sheikh?
John says
Divert and cross Suez canal via ferry crossing near Al Kubri or seek permission to walk through Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel.
Fkarian says
@Rolf You can always walk around towards Suez, go across, and then down again….
Dman says
Suez Canal Bridge?
Adam says
You can hypothetically walk from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina which is ~19,000 miles. This guy made the trip on bicycle, so it is possible.
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/a-seattleites-epic-bike-ride-from-alaska-to-argentina/
Popmonster says
How did he make it over the water with his bike?
William T Knowles Jr says
Two bridges which are serviceable 24/7 cross the Panama Canal, and all of the intervening rivers and waterways… There is the Darien Pass, but, it’s been crossed by vehicles for decades, going back to 1966 by two Chevrolet Corvairs and their service vehicles.
Monster Plush says
I bet you wouldn’t even make it.
Khai says
Not sure how the “longest” is defined.
I think it would be better named “farthest two points between which Google Maps walking navigation algorithm can find the shortest connection”.
Without such definition the word “longest” is pointless, because additional distance can be added either at each end or simply add certain destinations in the middle- e.g. adding some European city between start and end would make the journey significantly longer.
ted says
the definition you’re looking for
The line longest *direct* line that is continuously traversable by land between two points. By direct I mean the most efficient line. In other words the shortest line between the two points. So you are looking for two points on the globe, whose shortest line between them (that is traversable by land only ), is longer than the same kind of line between any other two points on the globe.
Shakoor says
Cap town to kuta is another walking distance
Overtones78 says
I’m guessing this is meant to be the longest one among the shortest walks between two points (as elaborated by Google Maps).
Open Gamer says
It’s funny that, while living in Russia, I was in Cape Town 9 times and 0 times in Magadan …
Ahmad Gharbeia says
Why does it cross the red sea at the mouth of the gulf of Suez instead of overland from the city of Suez or farther north!
Mark Baumgartner says
I walked from Switzerland to Singapore but had to take a boat from Bangladesh to Thailand because Burma was still closed. Took me 33 months.
Brilliant Maps says
That’s amazing! Would love to do a trip like that.
Sevgi says
What is the name of that road? Is there any foundation established the way and marked the paths all over the road or someone just played with Google maps between two random dots around the globe! Please be more informative!
Eric Brightwell says
As some have pointed out — this is the _shortest_ walk between two distant points. The longest walk could zig-zag and criss-cross the globe indefinitely.
But, understanding the point of the writer — wouldn’t it be theoretically possible to walk from the southern tip of South America, north across North America, north across the ice caps (whilst they still exist), and then southwest across Asia and south into Africa?
PATRICIA A JEWETT says
The Great trail across Canada says it is 14,996 miles long.
Ravi says
Nope. Sorry but you can’t make this walk. There is no road between Egypt and Sudan, you would have to take a ferry which I would consider cheating. You can make the walk/drive if you divert through Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Algeria and Libya. I spent way too longer trying to figure that our
Justin True says
and you are still wrong.
Mario Rigby, Lev Woods and Justin True… examples
Tetra says
There is an actual highway system longer than this…the Pan-america highway is almost 30000 km long.
Dave says
There is actually a missing section in the highway, called the Darien Gap, on the Panama-Colombia border. It’s about 60 miles long.
Alastair Humphreys says
I’ve cycled that route!
https://alastairhumphreys.com/roundtheworldbybike/
Alastair
Lydia says
Without a ferry?
Symon says
No Way the longest walk , Start in Argentina bottom of south America, walk to Alaska, walk across the baring Strait , yes it can be done at certain times of the year, that brings you to Russia Then walk down to south Africa
MATT BAXTER says
There is no road that crosses from Colombia to Panama
Matt Baxter says
Seems like a lot of posters are over-thinking this.
This is the longest point-to-point walking route that Google will generate.
Bob says
Southern tip of Africa to southern tip of South America via the Bering Straits over winter
Goatlips says
“Southern tip of Africa to southern tip of South America via the Bering Straits over winter”
A lot of people seem to be thinking up routes that don’t have roads.
The point was to generate a walkable route, with official roads/paths, from point A to point B.
nishani says
Can we go by vehicle through this road?
mk says
cars do it all the time, take the tunnel
Emily says
You’re not walking the whole time though. Between Israel and Egypt you are taking a ferry. You should be going through Suez to get between Israel and Egypt so you WALK the whole time. So really it’s not the longest WALK as you take a ferry.
Gregory says
I think the goal is the longest “most direct” walkable route, i.e. without any unnecessary detours.
However, using a ferry is definitely breaking the rules!
So at least one would have to walk through the tunnel under the Suez Canal, which does make the route even longer.
Gregory says
The Zambesi River ferry crossing can also be detoured, but when you get to the Nile River, there’s just no way across without using a ferry, so that seems to kill the exercise.
Stub Mandrel says
This is longer, but you have to add a divert around the Black Sea as otherwise Google assumes you can walk across it (I switched off ferries).
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cape+Town,+South+Africa/Shop+MTS,+Sovetskaya+Ulitsa,+43,+%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F,+Magadan+Oblast,+Russia,+685910/@43.3319675,42.7579653,5.54z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1dcc500f8826eed7:0x687fe1fc2828aa87!2m2!1d18.4240553!2d-33.9248685!1m5!1m1!1s0x596bd491122041b3:0x2a72e0ec1d5574ae!2m2!1d151.2950189!2d59.5807128!3e2
Honey J Barber says
Still not as long as that walk to the bathroom in the morning.
Devendra Kumar Chouhan says
Pan american highway is the longest highway
justadude_89 says
Canada’s Great Trail is 24,000 km long!
Lydia Majeau says
I am planning on trying this route in the next months, no cheating. Did anyone found out how to contour the Nile and the Red Sea since this post?
Sorin Acela says
It is so unbelievable how many fools in the whole world haven’t seen the sophism! 😀 😀 You can surely find a 1,000,000 km/miles “walking route” just by zigzagging in Europe! This stupid idea of the “longest walking route” was launched by an idiot who does not understand geometry. In fact that is (“might be”!) the SHORTEST walking route between the most distant points on the routable map.
Mahmud D Roje says
i would really like to take this path
if there is any support
you can reach me anytime
with easy plan and great team nothings i’m possible
Vickymileey says
Hello iam intrest this adventure iam walk now but i know rules please support me
Menno de Guisepe says
Cape Town to Yanbian, Jilin, China is longer.
Iril Kolle says
This is wrong. Following the route, you need a ferry to cross Aldan river in Russia.
Johan Visser says
Why Would Cape Town to Uelen in the North Eastern top of Russia not be the longest possible walk?
It is still Russia and does not seem to have major river or water mass dividing it from the mainland.
Glenda Rogers says
This is all just amazing to me and what I am trying to find out is if it is possible to visit every country in the world (excluding Islands of course) by walking and without taking a boat??? i.e. are all countries not still joined in some way?? Sorry, I never concentrated much in Geography class :-). And if you look at the map of the walk on which this whole conversation seemed to start, look what country is in the middle!!! Turkey. Look at what has gone on there with the earthquakes and now another one today 🙁 Surely this is a warning, and a major one. New Zealand recently had a cyclone and a week later were hit by an earthquake. Brazil having flooding and mud slides. South Africa having floods almost every few months now, which is where I am from. Madagascar and Mauritius being hit by cyclone Freddie, and it could hit Mozambique, and believe me, the people there can’t take much more after the last cyclone and floods. And Tom, I guess you are right, seeing that Georgia is the 3rd safest in the county. The problem I see with this map is that it leaves from South Africa!!!!! Crime here is hectic!!!! You won’t make it through by walking!!!
Serbian-Canadian says
How exactly are these people walking from Hurgada to Sharm el-Sheikh with the sea floor at a depth of min 25 metres and at places much more, there?
Surely they have to go all the way to Suez canal in ordere to walk. If they take vessels for transport, than they can do it anywhere not just at the edge o the Red Sea.