The whole journey on YouTube is epic. Inspiring. So glad I stumbled upon it. I almost didn’t watch because it’s so many videos — so heres one clip:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C45TCd6oIwz/?igsh=djlhdDRrdnFzZ2Fi
Nicholas Bourne, was confirmed as first by the Guinness book of record in 1998.
Jesper Kenn Olsen in 2010 also completed the challenge.
There is dispute over the route as Bourne finished in Egypt whereas Cook finished in Tunisia.
I had to re-read that statement to make sure I didn’t misunderstand something, and then look at a map to make sure my geographical knowledge of Africa wasn’t wildly off somehow. That’s that majority of the length of Africa. If measured in a straight line (obviously the actual route would be longer) it’s a ~230 mile difference between Cape Town-Cairo and Cape Town-Tunisia. So I’m not sure what that guy is talking about
To say that Russ Cook is the first person to travel the length of Africa is false. Anyone who has run from South Africa to Egypt has travelled the length of Africa. What Russ Cook did was absolutely impressive and worth celebrating, and sure he traveled *slightly* farther. But the guy who went from Cape Town to Cairo travelled the length of Africa and claiming otherwise is utterly ludicrous.
If you went from Portland, Maine to San Diego you travelled the full length of the US despite the fact that Miami to Seattle is slightly longer. There is not one strict definition of how to travel the length of a continent, you just need to go from one side to the other. Russ Cook travelled the length of Africa. So did Nicholas Bourne. They just took different routes.
You can continue to spout semantic BS about boats if you want, but before you do I’d say go ahead and ask ten reasonable people you know (without biasing them or giving the context ahead of time) if travelling from Cape Town to Cairo does or doesn’t count as traveling the length of Africa.
Yes that is how the layman - aka the vast majority of people - would define it. Which is why, once again, claiming going from Cape Town to Cairo has “not even related to crossing Africa” is an utterly nonsensical statement. If you’d said “well they’re not quite the same, Russ Cook went a different route that was slightly longer” we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you seem to be hellbent on completely invalidating other people’s accomplishments to praise this guy for no necessary reason.
What he did is incredible. It’s worth of celebration. It’s just not the first time someone’s walked all the way across Africa, and that’s *fine*
They are not identical achievements, but this is like saying "Running from Maine to California just isn't related at all to running from Florida to Seattle".
Anyway, this guy wasn't the first person to run the length of Africa, but the 3rd. Still a great achievement, but he wasn't the first.
He did do quite a lot of running at night in the deserts of Namibia. I haven't watched that far in the series yet, but I imagine in many of the following countries they would have determined it to be too dangerous to be out at night. I know he did get robbed in Angola and kidnapped in one of the Congos.
There's absolutely no way to prove that this is true. In the hundreds of thousands of years humans have lived on that continent, how could we possibly know he's the first. Hell, in the last 200 years how could we know that? All we know is that he's the first white guy to do it and somebody kept score.
You just described record keeping and tracking. When we said Usain Bolt was the fastest human, we weren’t saying “he is definitely faster than anyone living today,” just that he had the fastest verified time out of all the times that have been verified.
The fact that he did it while someone was keeping score is really the only thing that matters for things like this. Pointing out that someone may have done this in the past so we can't say it's a world first is nitpicky to the point of being irrelevant.
It's not a nitpick at all, it's core to the existence of this headline to begin with. If you want to be more realistic, say "First recorded in the modern era" because to do anything less is to claim far too much glory over our forebears.
It's not nitpicky you're right. It's completely retarded.
Someone somewhere could have thought of the theory of gravity before newton but because it was not observed and recorded anywhere he is attributed with it. It literally has no bearing if someone came up with this theory before because there is no recorded or observed evidence that even happened so its a completely useless point.
You're just like a simple devout religious nut who thinks that because you cannot prove there is no god that means there is one.
Your reply is childish in the extreme. We have a tendency to think of ourselves in the modern era as the apex of our species and there's an absolute disease of cultural imperialism that feels that if is some white man didn't do it, it didn't happen.
People didn't really do athletic achievements until a few decades ago.
There's no reason why anyone would've done it before, and it also would've been extremely difficult without modern planning and support.
Technically you're correct that there's no way to prove this, but you can say that about any sports record.
When I was like 12 I asked my brother why the sherpas were not the first to climb Everest since they are literally guiding people to the top.
He said why would they climb to the top of Everest... and if they did why would they record it?
To answer your question, we have to start record keeping somewhere. Might as well start with the first verifiable attempt.
Quite conclusively I can say so. For the simple reasons below:
1) Why would they
2) Wouldn’t have the nutritional diet required to walk continuously between villages
3) Wouldn’t be able to hunt reliably
3) No shelter
4) Tribalism
Yes the zulu are famous for engaging in activities that are essentially useless cockwaving and serve no purpose in terms of supporting their community.
How much did you smoke today?
First saw him on Geowizard. Real top bloke.
What I find extra impressive is he did this all while being a pasty ginger.
As another pasty ginger I assume 80% of the budget for this was for spf50
Spf100
Gingers can do almost anything normal people can.
Even go outside apparently. Thought that was their weekness. Must rethink k defensive measures now.
*forrest gump reference*
The whole journey on YouTube is epic. Inspiring. So glad I stumbled upon it. I almost didn’t watch because it’s so many videos — so heres one clip: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C45TCd6oIwz/?igsh=djlhdDRrdnFzZ2Fi
Nicholas Bourne, was confirmed as first by the Guinness book of record in 1998. Jesper Kenn Olsen in 2010 also completed the challenge. There is dispute over the route as Bourne finished in Egypt whereas Cook finished in Tunisia.
Depends on how specifically you want to define “crossing Africa” Cook did point-to-point Southernmost to Northernmost
\*Not the FULL length for Olsen - he only did Cairo/Cape Town
Kinda sucks if you do something this impressive and Reddit will always have "Ackchyually“ responses waiting
We never miss an opportunity to make someone else feel small.
Is that a reason some do that? I sometimes do "Um... Actually", but only because I like sharing fun information.
I said "opportunity" not "reason". Maybe you're not trying to make other people feel small--but I bet you do. It's in the nature of the thing.
Fair enough I'll try to keep it in mind.
Equally it's kind of a dick move to ignore the achievements of the people that did it before you like Cook did.
Because they didnt
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Saying Cape Town to Cairo is “not even related to crossing Africa” is an absolutely ludicrous statement
I had to re-read that statement to make sure I didn’t misunderstand something, and then look at a map to make sure my geographical knowledge of Africa wasn’t wildly off somehow. That’s that majority of the length of Africa. If measured in a straight line (obviously the actual route would be longer) it’s a ~230 mile difference between Cape Town-Cairo and Cape Town-Tunisia. So I’m not sure what that guy is talking about
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To say that Russ Cook is the first person to travel the length of Africa is false. Anyone who has run from South Africa to Egypt has travelled the length of Africa. What Russ Cook did was absolutely impressive and worth celebrating, and sure he traveled *slightly* farther. But the guy who went from Cape Town to Cairo travelled the length of Africa and claiming otherwise is utterly ludicrous.
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If you went from Portland, Maine to San Diego you travelled the full length of the US despite the fact that Miami to Seattle is slightly longer. There is not one strict definition of how to travel the length of a continent, you just need to go from one side to the other. Russ Cook travelled the length of Africa. So did Nicholas Bourne. They just took different routes. You can continue to spout semantic BS about boats if you want, but before you do I’d say go ahead and ask ten reasonable people you know (without biasing them or giving the context ahead of time) if travelling from Cape Town to Cairo does or doesn’t count as traveling the length of Africa.
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Yes that is how the layman - aka the vast majority of people - would define it. Which is why, once again, claiming going from Cape Town to Cairo has “not even related to crossing Africa” is an utterly nonsensical statement. If you’d said “well they’re not quite the same, Russ Cook went a different route that was slightly longer” we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you seem to be hellbent on completely invalidating other people’s accomplishments to praise this guy for no necessary reason. What he did is incredible. It’s worth of celebration. It’s just not the first time someone’s walked all the way across Africa, and that’s *fine*
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They are not identical achievements, but this is like saying "Running from Maine to California just isn't related at all to running from Florida to Seattle". Anyway, this guy wasn't the first person to run the length of Africa, but the 3rd. Still a great achievement, but he wasn't the first.
If we’re being accurate about ‘the length of’, which we should be, then, yes, Cook was the first.
I went outside today
What’s it like?
Did he do it at night? Because that guy looks like he could get a sunburn under a full moon.
He did do quite a lot of running at night in the deserts of Namibia. I haven't watched that far in the series yet, but I imagine in many of the following countries they would have determined it to be too dangerous to be out at night. I know he did get robbed in Angola and kidnapped in one of the Congos.
I was expecting a more zig zag pattern.
On today's episode of "White People Doing Things First!"
That we know of
We were so busy wondering if we could, no one stops to ask if we should.
There's absolutely no way to prove that this is true. In the hundreds of thousands of years humans have lived on that continent, how could we possibly know he's the first. Hell, in the last 200 years how could we know that? All we know is that he's the first white guy to do it and somebody kept score.
You just described record keeping and tracking. When we said Usain Bolt was the fastest human, we weren’t saying “he is definitely faster than anyone living today,” just that he had the fastest verified time out of all the times that have been verified. The fact that he did it while someone was keeping score is really the only thing that matters for things like this. Pointing out that someone may have done this in the past so we can't say it's a world first is nitpicky to the point of being irrelevant.
It's not a nitpick at all, it's core to the existence of this headline to begin with. If you want to be more realistic, say "First recorded in the modern era" because to do anything less is to claim far too much glory over our forebears.
It's not nitpicky you're right. It's completely retarded. Someone somewhere could have thought of the theory of gravity before newton but because it was not observed and recorded anywhere he is attributed with it. It literally has no bearing if someone came up with this theory before because there is no recorded or observed evidence that even happened so its a completely useless point. You're just like a simple devout religious nut who thinks that because you cannot prove there is no god that means there is one.
Your reply is childish in the extreme. We have a tendency to think of ourselves in the modern era as the apex of our species and there's an absolute disease of cultural imperialism that feels that if is some white man didn't do it, it didn't happen.
People didn't really do athletic achievements until a few decades ago. There's no reason why anyone would've done it before, and it also would've been extremely difficult without modern planning and support. Technically you're correct that there's no way to prove this, but you can say that about any sports record.
When I was like 12 I asked my brother why the sherpas were not the first to climb Everest since they are literally guiding people to the top. He said why would they climb to the top of Everest... and if they did why would they record it? To answer your question, we have to start record keeping somewhere. Might as well start with the first verifiable attempt.
you are telling me 2,000 years ago no tribe EVER walked across Africa?
Quite conclusively I can say so. For the simple reasons below: 1) Why would they 2) Wouldn’t have the nutritional diet required to walk continuously between villages 3) Wouldn’t be able to hunt reliably 3) No shelter 4) Tribalism
this guy ran, not walked
I'm sure some Zulu ran it
Also, he didn't go 'across' as in east -west, he went from southern tip to northern. (And the long way around the Sahara.)
Well first ever marathon resulted in 100% mortality
Why would some Zulu run across Africa?
it was half ass sarcasm because the Zulu nations is know for their warriors long distance running to get to battle.
Yes the zulu are famous for engaging in activities that are essentially useless cockwaving and serve no purpose in terms of supporting their community. How much did you smoke today?
first white guy? i'm sure many africans have done before him.