George Meegan embarked on an extraordinary expedition from South America to Alaska, traversing an astonishing nineteen thousand miles from 1977 to 1983. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons.
George Meegan was 24 when he stepped away from the southern tip of South America in January 1977 with an unusually ambitious destination in mind: Alaska. He completed the journey in September 1983 after covering 19,019 miles on foot. George Meegan reached the shore of the Beaufort Sea at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on September 18, 1983, after 2,426 days on the road, according to UPI Archives. Contemporary reports put the distance at 19,019 miles, covering the length of the Americas from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean.
The idea began while Meegan was working aboard a British merchant ship, according to The New Yorker. Rather than celebrating immediately, Meegan was overcome with emotion at the finish and said he felt as though he had lost his “best friend” because the walk was over. Meegan, a young British merchant sailor from Rainham, England, wanted to walk the length of the Western Hemisphere, a route that would take him through some of the most remote and politically unstable parts of the Americas. Looking at a map from his bunk, he became fascinated by the apparent closeness of the world’s continents and wondered whether the distance could actually be covered on foot. He did not travel with a large support team. Meegan travelled largely without funding, carrying his belongings in a two-wheeled cart and relying on help from people he met along the way. After almost six years and eight months of travelling, the journey had come to an end.
The Darién Gap was unlike any terrain Meegan had crossed before. There were no roads through its rainforests, swamps and rivers connecting North and South America. Meegan still faced many water-related challenges Although he tried crossing during the dry season. As The New Yorker described it, he had to wake early and collect water droplets from leaves.
