The World's Longest Walk Is Not for the Faint of Heart

Feel in need of a good long walk to work off those Christmas cookies? Popular Mechanics flags a post by Interesting Engineering on what's thought to be the longest non-stop walk you can take on the planet. It's a more than 14,000-mile journey from L'Agulhas, South Africa, to Magadan, Russia—roughly the equivalent of hiking the Appalachian Trail just over six times. Any encountered bodies of water are passable via bridge, meaning there's no cheating by boat or ferry required.

Popular Mechanics suggests a person could complete the trek in about three years (that works out to about 13 miles a day), though the magazine notes they'd need to carry or obtain a wide range of gear: stuff suitable for the desert, the rainforest, extreme cold, as well as "body armor for the sections through anarchic or war-torn regions like South Sudan." And it would be quite the physical endeavor: Brilliant Maps notes you'd ascend more than 385,000 feet and descend roughly the same amount, which is like going up and down Everest 13 times. (More walking stories.)