By TESA STRASSER
The Press-News
Perhaps you remember reading about a young man from this area that rode his bicycle 4,400 miles from the coast of Oregon across the United States to Virginia Beach in 2005. His name is Daren Wendell, and he is working on a new project.
Wendell is planning to walk around the world. Yes, that's correct -- walk. His adventure will cover 18,000 miles, 11 languages, 7 years, 3 continents, 17 times zones, 14 countries and 36 million steps.
This venture will take considerably longer than the 74 days of the previous quest. He believes that it will take seven years. What a huge commitment! Having known this young man as a youth, I am guessing that that he has the energy for this mountainous task.
If successful in this endeavor, he could be only the third person to ever do so. Dave Kunst completed the trek in Waseca, Minn. with a pack mule named Willie Makeit on Oct. 5, 1974, to become the first person verified to have circled the land mass of the earth on foot. His brother, John Kunst, started the journey with him but was shot and killed by bandits halfway around the world in Afghanistan. Polly Levtesky also has completed the trek and Karl Bushby, of the United Kingdom, is en route now. He may or may not finish before Wendell.
Our brave local native has eliminated debt and sold all that he owns except what will fit in his backpack. Another part of the preparation was a self-imposed dating ban. Being on the move as much as he is and will be for a long time, he thought that it would be best to not have romantic ties.
Since 2006 Wendell has been planning, saving, reading, researching and training for what he is calling the Earth Expedition. Part of that training included running a marathon. This is a dream that he has committed many years to accomplish.
"I am drawn to challenge and what people say I cannot do," Wendell said. "I'm attracted to risk, I'm attracted to the unexpected, attracted to new people, new languages, new cultures and new places."
The Earth Expedition started on March 8 at the campus of North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Ga. That Saturday morning in a campus parking lot he found a speed bump to mark the formal landmark of this major event. He is hoping that it still will be there in seven years when he returns to that parking lot from the opposite direction after completing the global hike.
This school lies on the Appalachian Trail, which he will follow from Georgia to Maine. He will continue east out of Maine into New Brunswick and to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he will then fly to the western coast of Portugal. From there he will travel east through Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland. The next part of the trip will take him through Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. He then will travel through Russia. The final stages of the journey will involve a walk, swim or paddle across the frozen Bering Strait, assuming the sea ice cooperates and he receives the necessary permits. He then will travel through Alaska and across Canada into the USA.
Wendell's motivation is not the challenge alone, but another driving force. He is working in conjunction with the 1,000 Wells Project and Blood Water Missions. His goal is to raise awareness of the need for wells in Africa. Every day 3,000 people die in Africa due to the lack of clean water. Along the way he has set up speaking engagements to encourage support for this cause.
Wendell graduated from Canton South High School in 1999 and from Kentucky Christian College in 2003. He was a youth pastor for five years in Beloit, Wis. His parents are Joy Wendell and Dave and Donna Wendell. He has an older brother, Chad.
"My biggest fear is to look back on my life and wished I would have lived it differently,"Wendell said. "Hence the Earth Expedition."
You can follow his progress by logging on to the Sky Shield Web site listed at the end of this article. The GPS tracker that he wears will show his location and his route.
Information for this article was taken from the following Web sites. They may be consulted for more details on this and other interesting projects: www.bloodwatermission.com, www.theearthexpedition.com, http://skyshield.positionlogic.com/Login.aspx and www.expeditionnews.com.
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