I would walk 3,000 miles...
Teenager inspired to share his journey at walking pace as he raises money for three charities
FROM John O’Groats to the Black Sea, a local teenager steps out all in aid of three charities.
BY THE time he reaches his destination, Stefan Goodwin will have taken more than six million steps.
On his epic charity trek from John O’ Groats to the Bulgarian shores of the Black Sea, the 19-year-old from Minard will travel 3,100 miles or 5,000 kilometres through 14 countries over more than 200 days.
First, though, Stefan had to get to Scotland’s north mainland coast to his starting point.
Bus
It began on Monday November 7 when Stefan caught the West Coast Motors bus through Minard on his way northwards.
His proud – but, by her own admission, mildly frantic – mum is Lesley Goodwin, principal teacher at Minard Primary School.
‘The children at Minard Primary School are tracking his journey and working out how many miles he covers and researching some of the places he goes to,’ explained Lesley.
Finding accommodation as he goes, Stefan has received some warm hospitality on the early stages of his journey – and would welcome overnight accommodation as he makes his way through the country.
Camped
Lesley said: ‘So far he has camped, been in bed and breakfasts, and was put up in Fortrose by Mr and Mrs Donnie McLeod, who used to live in Ardrishaig and called him up en route to offer a bed. Eohan Anderson came to the rescue in Inverness.’
Video
The whole trip will be recorded on video by Stefan, and you can follow his progress on his blog entitled justgoneawander.com.
You can also keep tabs on his journey via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and on YouTube.
Stefan explained the purpose of his trip: ‘I’ve been inspired by [US journalist] Paul Salopek to take my hand to the concept of ‘slow journalism’. That is, to explore and share more meaningful stories by taking the time to discover them at the pace of the pendulum of my two feet, rather than just little glimpses through a train window.
‘And so I’ll be sharing this journey’s story through videos, text, sounds and pictures on my wander blog.’
Stefan continued: ‘I am doing this in aid of three wonderful charities – children’s cleft lip correction charity Operation Smile, Friends of the Earth and Save the Children.’
Donate
He added: ‘As there is a long time between now and when I complete my walk, I’m not asking you to do this now – but if you’d like to be an incredible example, you can donate to all three charities by clicking on the link on my blog.’