Distance-related Guinness world records that will leave you breathless, from the fastest swim around Hong Kong Island to the highest-altitude taxi ride
- The people at Guinness love distance-related achievements, whether endurance feats or travel by unconventional means such as on aqua bikes or Segways
- Here are some notable records of this kind and the people behind them, from the man who swam the Amazon to the pair who tandem biked around the world
A recent article in the South China Morning Post described how Hong Kong couple Simeon Pang Beh-sing and Gale Lok Yuk-tong, completed a nine-month, 6,000km journey across the United States on a tandem bicycle.
Along the way they overnighted in fire stations, churchyards and strangers’ homes but it was their mode of transport that interested me.
Had they set a world record for the longest distance travelled by tandem?
It turns out they hadn’t. Not by a long chalk, according to the Guinness World Records website.
From December 1994 to October 1997, British couple Phil and Louise Shambrook pedalled their two-seater 38,143km (23,700 miles) around the world.
The pair, who now live in New Zealand, probably hold the world record for largest calf muscles as well.
Hong Kong couple’s trip of a lifetime – 6,000km US tandem bike adventure
The Guinness people love distance-related achievements. Some are straightforward feats of endurance, others involve unconventional forms of transport. Records have been set on stilts and Segways; in tuk-tuks and tractors, on pogo sticks and unicycles, not to mention unicycling underwater (2.1km, by Ashrita Furman, if you’re curious).
Here are some more record breakers who have achieved immortality – or more accurately, fleeting immortality. After all, someone even more superhuman (eccentric) is sure to raise the bar sooner or later.
Adriaan Marais and Marinus du Plessis hold the record for the longest journey by aqua bike (a jet ski purpose-built for racing). In 2006, the South Africans travelled from Alaska to the Panama Canal, a total of 17,266.69km, in 95 days.
Skimming along without a support crew, the fearless friends endured iceberg-infested seas, huge swells and engine failures. And despite lacking navigational equipment, they managed to ride for 10 hours a day at an average speed of 64km/h.
Engine failure was one scenario Aleksander Doba didn’t need to worry about.
The Polish paddler kayaked solo across the Atlantic in 2010, and again for good measure in 2013. Both were recorded as the longest open-water kayak voyages ever made.
National Geographic named him Adventurer of the Year in 2015 and two years later, a few days before he turned 71, he completed a third crossing in 110 days.
Described as having the appearance of a pensioner on holiday, Doba was never going to die peacefully in a poolside sun lounger. Instead he breathed his last aged 74 on the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.
No jet ski or kayak? No problem. In 2007, Martin Strel became the first person to swim the length of the Amazon River.
For the Slovenian, the threat of 20-foot ocean swells and icebergs was replaced by the risk of attack by piranhas, sharks and pirates.
The 66-day, 5,268km swim from the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic coast of Brazil is just one in a résumé of riverine achievements Strel has notched up.
The Human Fish also holds the record for swimming the Danube, Mississippi and Yangtze rivers.
Back on dry land, George Meegan walked 30,608km from Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, 400km north of the Arctic Circle. The expedition, which began in 1977, lasted, wait for it – seven years.
The distance is recorded by Guinness as the longest unbroken walk, the only walk to cover the entire western hemisphere and the most degrees of latitude ever covered on foot. The Briton took 41 million steps and wore out a dozen pairs of Italian hiking boots.
Wearing out footwear is a perennial problem for long-distance walkers but there is one rather extreme workaround. Johann Hurlinger walked 1,400km from Vienna to Paris in 55 daily 10-hour stages in 1900. Why should this relatively short distance turn the heads of the people at Guinness? Because the Austrian was walking on his hands!
Back on two feet, and as astonishing as any achievement in this list, was the 560km run across Northern California by Dean Karnazes. The American set out on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 and finished 80 hours and 44 minutes later, on Saturday, October 15.
But what made the ultramarathon runner’s feat unique was that he completed the distance without stopping, eating or sleeping, although he claims to have grabbed brief catnaps along the way. Karnazes has also run a marathon to the South Pole and a marathon in each of the 50 US states in 50 consecutive days.
There was nothing high speed about Leigh Purnell, Paul Archer and Johno Ellison’s record-breaking round-the-world odyssey. In 2011/12, the trio travelled 69,716.12km in a black London taxi they bought on eBay.
The trip across three continents, 41 countries, and 10 time zones gained them a place in the Guinness World Records for the longest journey by taxi. The university pals also achieved recognition for the highest altitude reached by taxi, having nursed “Hannah” to 5,225 metres in Qinghai province, China.
The charge on the meter when they arrived back in the English capital was a whopping £79,006.80.
