British adventurers Dave Cornthwaite and Leon McCarron – two men whose past expeditions we’ve covered regularly here on The Adventure Blog – have joined forces for an epic journey on foot through the heard of the Middle East. The two men are preparing to set out on a three-month, 1000 mile (1600 km) trek with the intention of sharing stories about the real people who live in a part of the world that is often misunderstood by so many others.
Dave and Leon have dubbed their expedition Walk the Masar – which means “path” in Arabic. Their journey begins in Jerusalem, with the intention of circumnavigating the Dead Sea completely on foot. They’ll travel along the West Bank, crossing over into Jordan, and walking into the Sinai Peninsula, eventually making their way to Mt. Catherine in the middle of the desert there.
The duo should be en route to their starting point within the next few days, as they intend to start the journey in early December, with the hope of wrapping it up by early March of 2016. Both Dave and Leon will be posting regular updates to their respective Facebook pages, sharing stories of their adventures and posting about the people they meet along the way. Their hope is to lift the veil of misconceptions that seems to cover the Middle East, and reveal the stories of the real people that live there.
Neither of these men are strangers to traveling in remote regions of the world. For Dave, this will be his 12th expedition as part of his Expedition 1000 project, which is an attempt to complete 25 separate journeys of 1000 miles or more completely under his own power. Past expeditions have seen him skateboard across Australia, stand-up paddleboard the length of the Mississippi, and swim the Missouri River. Leon has had similar experiences as well, trekking Iran’s longest river source to sea, walking from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to Hong Kong, and crossing the Empty Quarter on foot as well. This latest undertaking will only add to their already impressive resumes.
Find out more at WalkTheMasar.com and on Dave and Leon’s Facebook pages.
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This sort of reminds me of the woman from the movie Tracks, Robyn Davidson. She goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her dog.
This completely different. Robyn was mostly outside civilization in the remoteness of the Aussie Outback. Dave and Leon will mainly be on roads as the aim is to be with people.
Robyn was alone & unsupported (ok, camel assisted) most times for long stretches.
If you compare maps, Robyn had a continuous (mostly, I've read the book and saw the film last year) Dave and Leon are apparently on streches avoiding I believe high arid/desert areas…also because of local political issues between the countries.
Both adventures are worthwile and interesting. If looking at the "adventure" part of it (the definition of adventure is linked to the risks) then Robyn had a hell of an adventure. Also a reason why her book and story back then attained world wide fame.