A really well-chosen set of conditions leads to original challenges. Ionica Smiths challenges you this summer. Episode 1: Travel as far as you can in 24 hours.
On March 30 at 7:01 am, Joe Kepel boarded the Eurostar train to Paris in his hometown of London. That was the start of an exciting journey, as Cable wanted to see how far he could go in 24 hours. What is (as a crow flies) the farthest point it can reach by train in one day?
His journey was live online in Follow. From Paris to Strasbourg and from there to Basel. Can you feel his nerves when the train stops somewhere, can he transfer it? Many people have tried to speculate where Kibble will end up. Take a Southern Italian train. Was he going to take the last railroad ferry in Europe to cross the Strait of Messina and end up in Sicily? But the boat was, of course, too slow for Kibble, who was trying to travel as far as possible in 24 hours. He finally finished after a flight of 23 hours, 59 minutes and 15 seconds at Calabria’s Buffa Marina – 1964.6 km as the crow flies from his starting point.
The question now, of course, is: Can it last within 24 hours? You don’t have to start in London, you might get more if you start in Amsterdam or Arnhem. The interesting thing about this challenge is that it has two parts. You first have to consider the schedules at home to determine the ideal path. Then comes the second part where you really have to make the trip. A track with very tight transfers might be the fastest on paper, but if something goes wrong along the way, your entire plan falls into the water. How strong are you in planning your trip?
Last year, Kibble also made the trip as far as possible in 24 hours, but then by bus – only being allowed to use public transit. During lockdown, he spent the evenings looking at maps, timetables, and bus routes. In August, he decided to do the course he had already calculated, and finished in Morecambe (just less than 340 kilometers from the starting point). The nice thing about this 24 hour public transit bus trip is that it is not expensive at all; The cable to transfer cost less than 70 euros.
If you don’t have a budget at all, you can also see how far you can bike, walk or walk in 24 hours. Although it then becomes a math challenge similar to Martin van der Wejden more than a math puzzle.
Or you can take a walk, where chance plays a major role and you cannot plan everything yourself in advance. But can you go further than that by bus? I recently received advice on flagging a misspelled elevator. Drivers who know everything wrong will stop – and then you can immediately request a ride.
Did you accept this challenge? Send a message with the results to [email protected].
