Money Doesn't Make the World Go Round, Says Canadian Who Walked the Globe

A Canadian man who walked across the world says the experience was the best of his life, and despite its hardships it changed him for the better.

"I’m no longer the same guy who set off on this trip," says Jean Beliveau.

"I have the same personality, but now I feel as though I'm rich. We're all blinded by money and there are so many traps around us, like 'Here, buy this and you'll be happy.' I don’t want to play that game anymore. Over the course of my whole journey, I met masses of happy people who had no money at all."

Beliveau's epic journey began in 2000, when he was 45, after he set off on a walk in his home town of Montreal. He was in the grip of a mid-life crisis, and though he was owner of a neon sign factory, Beliveau was beset by financial problems and facing bankruptcy. 

While walking across Montreal's Jacques Cartier Bridge one day, mired in stress over his personal troubles, the businessman says he was struck by a thought about how long it would take him to reach New York on foot. Later, he hatched a plan to traverse the world's six continents on foot.

Beginning in Montreal, Beliveau walked to the US border, continued down the US Atlantic coast and then came to South America, where he crossed to the Pacific coast, before crossing the continent again to Argentina's Atlantic coast.

The offer of a free plane ticket to South Africa from an airline which heard of his endeavor was just one of the acts of kindness that Beliveau experienced while on his trip.

"When they heard that I was trying to cross the world on foot, people would just shove 20 or 50 dollars into my pocket. I lived very cheaply, so that money lasted for a long time. You know, in Indonesia and Africa you can eat magnificently for a dollar!" explains Beliveau.

According to his calculations, Beliveau has stayed with 1,600 families, spent a similar number of nights in his tent, and at other times was offered a room by staff at local institutions such as police stations, churches and schools.

Beliveau intended to use his trip to promote peace and non-violence for the children of the world, following the UN proclamation that 2001-2010 be considered the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. His walk was accompanied by a website run by his wife, who came to visit him each Christmas, in a different location.

After walking 75,554 kilometers across 64 countries and going through 54 pairs of shoes donated by well-wishers, Beliveau returned to Canada in 2011, when he told journalists, "I feel like the walk is not my walk anymore. It is the walk of humanity, of these people who came with me in hope of a better world."

Since then he has written a book about his experience, called 'A Dream Walk Around the World,' and is now in the process of building his dream home in the Canadian forest. In addition, Beliveau is now set on visiting some of the countries he wanted to walk across, but wasn't able to; in 2002 Colombia was too dangerous to cross on foot, and in 2005 he couldn't get a visa to enter Libya.