The 30-year-old YouTuber walks across entire countries in a perfectly straight line.
Tom Davies from Aldridge, UK wants to get something straight. His attempts to walk across countries, that is. The Geowizard, as he is known to his fans, has gained a reputation as the man who walks long distances in a dead straight line, without a single turn. So far, over 946,000 subscribers tune in to his adventures every week to see him try, succeed, and fail at his epic shenanigans.
Tom Davies swims across a river. Photo: Geowizard/Tom Davies
Davies grew up in a relatively ordinary working-class family. He was not all that inclined for school and took on odd jobs. However, his casual, laid-back personality did not stop him from finding an unusual calling.
In 2015, he came across a geography guessing game called Geoguessr. In it, players must determine the location of a random Google Street View scene based on the clues in the image.
Davies, who had always had a knack for geography, quickly became the top Geoguessr streamer on YouTube. Since starting out, he has gained over 100 million views on his channel. While the popularity and exposure were a great achievement, Davies wanted to wow his audience in his own way.
Tom Davies at a camp. Photo: Geowizard/Tom Davies
Using solely Google Maps and Google Earth, he wanted to see if he could walk across a country without deviating more than 50m from a straight line. This meant facing extreme obstacles and committing a bit of mischief along the way. Picture Davies trespassing on agricultural lands, running across sprawling moorlands, climbing fences, almost drowning in rivers and bogs, and scrambling up steep slopes in order to stay as linear as possible.
His biggest challenges have been unexpected cliffs and ravines that did not show up on the maps. He created his own grading system where a slight deviation of 25m and less scores as a platinum run, while a gold run is 50m and less. In 2020, he became the first to cross Norway in a straight line.
These straight-line missions did not come without obstacles. As he tried to be the first person to walk Wales in 2019 and Scotland in 2021 in a straight line, he was unable to continue.
Hypothermia and angry farmers
In Wales, he caught hypothermia just 15km from the Welsh coast while wading through marshes and climbing up a mountain. In Scotland, he had a great start, but prickly forests and moors, COVID-19 restrictions, and run-ins with angry farmers and policemen prompted him and friend Welsh Greg to regroup. As expected, his expedition completely flabbergasted everyone he encountered.
Yet this is not the end. In the future, he plans to walk across Patagonia from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. When there’s a will, there’s a straightway.
