Twenty-five-year-old Andrew Siess spent the last three years walking across the planet. Photo: Courtesy of Andrew Siess
When Andrew Siess tells people he once hit a whale with his boat, very few believe him.
In May 2012, he was sailing across the Atlantic Ocean when his sailboat struck a sperm whale and began to take on water. Siess and his small crew sent out a mayday call and were rescued by a passing German cargo ship. Which kind of sounds like enough first-date story fodder to last a lifetime, but for the 25-year-old Minnesota native, it was only the first “Did that really happen?” story of many.
That’s because Siess just became the youngest person to circumnavigate the planet on foot.
“Walking is the most basic transport,” he says of ditching his boat for a pair of sneakers. “The only thing that can break is you.”
Andrew Siess relied solely on what little supplies he could fit in his backpack and tow-behind cart, which came down to basic camping equipment and paper maps. Photo: Courtesy of Andrew Siess
Siess says the global journey was a natural progression from other adventures he’s taken on since graduating high school; since 2009, he’s biked, hitchhiked, bussed, and sailed through most of the United States and South America—once canoeing the length of the Mississippi River, another time biking from Minnesota to the tip of South America. Yet to circle the globe, he would take on his longest distance yet, walking by foot through 22 countries over a span of three years.
“I was really stressed out at the start because I didn’t know if I’d ever see my family or friends again,” Siess admits. “If I did survive, I knew it would be a minimum of two years before I saw anyone.”
Siess averaged 33 miles a day (his longest-distance day came in at 62 miles), starting by sailing from Virginia and ending in Sorrento, Italy, just before his 25th birthday. Along the way he would play his violin and work odd side jobs to earn money. His only supplies? Those he could carry on his back or in his tow-behind cart, which came down to a tent, sleeping bag, clothes, basic medicine for fevers and muscle aches, books, food, water, a journal, and paper maps.
Siess says he played violin on the streets to earn money—until police would ask him to leave. Photo courtesy of Siess
“I prefer paper maps because they never run out of battery and don’t break in the rain,” explains Siess.
On bad days, Siess battled nasty weather: a blizzard in Japan, freezing temperatures in the Gobi desert. Other times it was exhaustion or aching joints (he once passed out in a grocery store due to dehydration). But mostly it was a handful of people he encountered along the way that he found frustrating—not to mention the hazardous hiking routes.
“Croatia was brutal for me,” he remembers. “The police wore me down by constantly stopping me and demanding my passport and searching me like a criminal. Unfortunately, I found out this world is not made for walking anymore. It’s really shitty walking all day in traffic with people honking at you or coming within inches of hitting you day after day after day, inhaling all the exhaust.
“I hate cars,” he continues. “I’d rather get rid of all the cars in the world than all the guns in the world.”
Followers of Siess’ journey could watch it unfold (slowly) on his website. Photo: Courtesy of Siess
Siess said the stress of the journey was enough to make him consider going home, but the prospect of quitting was even scarier: “Giving up would have been really the worst for me.”
However, Siess explains, it was the rest of the people he met along the way that kept him going. There was the documentarian couple, the strangers on horseback, and many people on foot who had heard his story and would walk alongside Siess to keep him company.
“Two French people were hitchhiking and had heard about me from the truck drivers there,” explains Seiss. “They eventually found me—there’s only one road, so you can’t miss anyone!—and they joined me for a week. They were the coolest.”
Siess says the best days of his journey were the ones where he had company. Photo: Courtesy of Siess
Siess says the best days of his three-year journey were the ones populated by his friends from home, many of whom joined him for the last month of the trek. Which made him realize: His next adventure? It will definitely include other people (and maybe one less whale).
“The next adventure is in the Amazon,” he says. “Probably by canoe. The important thing for me is that the next adventure is with other people. I want less rules and more fun, but a little challenge, too.”
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