Mark Boyle wanted to walk from Bristol to India. Without any money. Ho hum…
A man who planned to walk from Bristol to India without any money has quit, after getting as far as Calais, France.
Why was that?
Mark Boyle, 28, who set out four weeks ago with only T-shirts, a bandage and sandals, hoped to rely on the kindness of strangers for food and lodging.
But, because he could not speak French, people thought he was free-loading or an asylum seeker.
I’m sorry, but… Excuse me while I chuckle…
I’m not going to get into things like ‘didn’t he think of this’ before crossing the channel? The French generally being French speakers and all that cannot be relied upon to converse in English – and, freeloading is exactly what he was planning to do. Nor am I going to use the term ‘common sense’ as it clearly does not apply in this case – if it did, Mr Boyle would at the very least armed himself with a phrase book and French dictionary. And that’s only France, what about all those other countries and languages he will encounter along the way? They don’t all speak Albion’s tongue.
Mr Boyle, a former organic food company boss, belongs to the Freeconomy movement which wants to get rid of money altogether.
Well, if his walking expedition is an example of his planning skills, I won’t be holding my breath.
I wonder sometimes how some folk survive the day…
Quote “belongs to the Freeconomy movement which wants to get rid of money altogether.”
If he wants to get rid of his money, he should give it to me; if he wants to get rid of my money, he’ll have to deal with me.
The Freeconomy movement is doomed to failure. Money evolved for a reason and simply wishing it away with nothing more substantial than wishful thinking will achieve nothing and is naive in the extreme. Mark Boyle is an idiot. In less forgiving times, he would have died young.
Was that the same guy who had the Guardian Travel Blog Guest Spot and who was booed off screen?
Colin Campbell’s last blog post..Greenwashing Spreads to Beer
Different cove entirely
This story does raise the serious point of how we cope with the multiplicity of languages It’s certainly true that “They don’t all speak Albion’s tongue”. I use Esperanto on my travels. It takes a bit of planning – a skill not shown by Mark Boyle – but it is possible to meet Esperanto-speaking people in all the countries he was planning to travel through.