Goodwill walk from Britain to India without using money
LONDON, Jan 30: A British man is planning to walk to India without using money, relying on the goodwill of people along the way or working for bed and board, he said on Wednesday.
Former dotcom businessman Mark Boyle, from Bristol, western England, aims to end up at Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace after the 9,000-mile trek, which he thinks will take him about two and a half years.
“I’ve got some sunscreen, a good knife, a spoon, a bandage... no Visa card, no travellers’ cheques, no bank accounts, zero. I won’t actually touch money along the way,” the 28-year-old told BBC radio.
Walking between 15 and 45 miles a day, he plans to work his way down through France, Italy, eastern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan before reaching Gandhi’s birthplace of Porbandar on India’s west coast.
On his blog, Boyle said he was setting off on Wednesday.
“I will start writing a new chapter in my life. From this point on I endeavour to never touch money again,” he wrote on the blog, at www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog.php.
Describing the trip as a “pilgrimage”, he said he aims to demonstrate what he calls a “harvest philosophy” in which people can live by sharing skills rather than using cash.
“My mum and dad always speak about a time in Ireland when people came together and took in the harvest together, and no money changed hands,” he said in his soft Irish accent.—AFP
