- Hans Remembers- Saturday June 20, 1970- 50 Years Ago. A slow news day-
- It all started in Waseca, Minnesota. Two brothers had a crazy idea- Dave and John Kunst along with a supply carrying pack mule called “Willie MaKeit” set off from Waseca with the dream of becoming the first to ever walk around the world. When they got to Afghanistan in 1972 [wasn’t there a safer country to go through?} John would be killed and Dave would be wounded by bandits- but when Dave recovered he was back on his journey in January 1973- back at the spot where they had been stopped and on October 5, 1974 after over 4 years and 3 months- Dave became the first verified ‘circumnavigation by foot” calculated to have been a total of 14, 451 miles. That is a lot of walking.
slicethelife 
This left me speechless — and remembering Forrest Gump and his running.
I never knew this story- yes Forrest does come to mind- I can’t imagine the adventure- and sadly the tragedy. Took a lot of courage to pick up and keep going after his brother was killed.
Yes, I can’t imagine walking through Afghanistan just for the climate/terrain aspect! I also am flabbergasted the surviving brother continued from the spot where his brother was murdered. Human beings can be admirable when they set their minds to something and follow through with it.
You would think a great book/ documentary could have been made about this- wonder if there was ?
https://ultrarunninghistory.com/dave-kunst-1/ here’s a pretty detailed podcast and post about Dave
Thanks! Will check it out.
I immediately thought of Forrest Gump too.
That would be an adventure of a life time. I’d have a hard enough time walking from one end of the town to the other let alone around the world!