I recently came across descriptions of Patrick Leigh Fermor like this, and also The Longest Way. And I was reading a short story about a guy crossing India by bike. Something very appealing about these fellows. Their trips were just “I am going to walk from point A to point B.” A couple ideas stood out to me about a a trip like that:

• you don’t worry about the small stuff. You worry about “can I find something to eat tonight?”, “can I sleep somewhere tonight?”, and “can I make it to tonight without dying or getting lost in the desert?”

• you meet a million of the places you wouldn’t have otherwise seen, and that nobody else you’ll ever talk to has seen

• you sort of “earn” your way to each place. People they meet had respect for them, like instant-friends respect, because they’re walking/biking! That is crazy! White people travel in airplanes, they don’t walk or bike!

I don’t think I’ll change my trip to a “walk across India” trip. But I will keep their ideas fermenting in the back of my mind and see what happens.