Ben Preiss
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In an epic journey that spanned more than 13 years and 46,505 miles (74,408 km), Jason Lewis ended where he started, at the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England. This made him the first human to circle the world fueled by nothing other than his own power. Lewis walked, biked, pedaled boats, skated and didn’t even use sail power to cross bodies of water, paddling instead. He set out on the journey in 1994 with his friend, Stevie Smith, who wasn’t able to complete the challenge. Lewis made it back to his starting point this Saturday, satisfied that he had spent over a decade seeing the world quite literally on his own two feet.  He was a young man then. Fresh out of the University of London, Jason Lewis was running his own window-cleaning business and playing in a grunge rock band when his friend Stevie Smith was struck by the terrifying thought that the prime of his life would turn out to be less than it should. "What I see, day after day, are captured lives, half-lives, dedicated to a mirage of fullness that never comes," Smith would explain later. "My greatest fear is of mediocrity and of a slow, unremarkable acquiescence to society."
Come with me around the world, Smith told Lewis. We'll circumvent the globe like Magellan did riding the wind, but we'll do it under our own power: by bicycle, pedal boat, kayak, skates and our own remarkable feet.
(latimes)References: telegraph, latimes Filed In: |
