Famous Planetwalker comes to town
degree without speaking. I went to a boat building school, formed an NPO called Planetwalk and took off around the world. I hoped I could be a benefit to all of us. I did not know what that meant; I learnt along the way. I walked and sailed around the world.
Environmental studies
"I walked to Montana, got my masters degree in environmental studies, then walked to Madison, Wisconsin and got my PhD. I studied oil spills. I started speaking on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. I had something to say about the environment.
"What I realised when I walked across America was that people are part of the environment and how we treat one another is really what manifests in the physical environment.
"If we harm one another, it comes back as environmental degradation. For me the environment became something more. It became civil rights, human rights, gender equality and economic equity.
"The only reason I made it across South America and am now here in South Africa is because of human kindness.
"People were kind to me. Kindness is really important if we are to survive as a people."
Children
John has dedicated Planetwalk Africa to children everywhere, who stand to lose the most from climate change, and to "kindness". John's project, Planetlines, offers an environmental curriculum programme for children.
He told the Advertiser: "As we evolve and develop, we bump each other, we do things we might be sorry for. We must forgive ourselves and others, so we can go on.
"I will be performing and showing a documentary that has just started on the film festival circuit in the US. It will be shown on 5 March in Cape Town.
"I leave for home the next day. "While in the US I hope to raise some awareness and funding from companies to sponsor me for the walk when I return to South Africa. We have to have a support vehicle."
After his stint of not using motorised transport, John started riding in cars again in 1995.
Referring to not speaking, John says: "Every year on my birthday I would ask myself: 'Is this still appropriate?'"
'Amazing journey'
"I have had the most amazing journey in South Africa and I have been treated with the most utmost kindness and respect. I am almost speechless. All I can say is baie dankie.
"I was raised as a Christian. If people ask: 'What is your religion?' I say it's kindness and if anyone practises that, they are practising my religion.
"If someone said I would be silent for 17 years, I would have said: 'You've got to be kidding.”’
He notes that the Greek philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, took a vow of silence for five years. John does not know of anyone else who kept silent for 17 years.
When asked why he walked, rather than cycled, John says: "Because that is what we do. We have two legs that attach us to the earth. Walking is like a prayer, a meditation, something sacred and something essential.
Vulnerable
"With walking, you become vulnerable; you are just with the people. Walking is a way of knowing."
John notes: "I met my wife soon after I started speaking. I started speaking in April and met her in October.
"My wife does not walk with me. When we were younger we would bike together and do normal trekking together."
While parenting, John went on short walks with friends and his students, rather than long excursions.
"In South Africa, I have been fortunate to walk with community leaders through the townships. It's been a wonderful experience. All South Africans have been kind and generous and hospitable.
With Planetwalk Africa, John intends to collect climate data.
He became the National Geographic Society’s first education fellow in 2010. In 1991, he was appointed the United Nations Environment Programme’s Goodwill Ambassador to the World’s Grassroots Communities.