I left my life behind to walk around the world – here’s why
Tired of the 9-5 grind, Merlin Evans left it all behind to circumnavigate the globe on foot – an epic journey in aid of SHINE
On 23 July 2023, Merlin Evans stepped out of his mother’s front door in London with nothing more than a rucksack and a goal: to walk around the world – alone, unsupported, and largely unplanned.
Two years, 15,000 kilometres, and several lost toenails later, Merlin is somewhere in Central America, still walking.
With no corporate sponsor, no support team, and no well-oiled PR machine behind him, Merlin set off on foot to circumnavigate the planet, carrying his essentials in a backpack, including a tent for shelter.
Along the way, Merlin hopes to be able to help children who haven’t had the same opportunities he’s enjoyed. As he treks across continents, he’s raising funds for SHINE.
Before embarking on his extraordinary journey, the 30-year-old Londoner had lived what many might consider a “normal” life. He worked in PR, dabbled in tech, endured “boiler room” call centre sales, and qualified as a financial advisor. But nothing stuck. “I was just in an office, feeling bored and under-stimulated,” he says. “I was going from job to job, trying to find something that made me not feel like I was slowly rotting.”
In the years leading up to his big adventure, Merlin had been grappling with a series of personal upheavals. His dad had died in 2016, and two close friends survived cancer, while a third lost their battle with it. These experiences prompted a time of deep reflection on how we choose to spend our time on this planet.
The final straw came when the financial planning startup he worked for collapsed. “Suddenly I was fired and looking at job listings on LinkedIn, and I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore’.”
Merlin decided it was time to act upon a long-held desire to do something dramatically different. His adventurous spirit kicked in. “I suppose it was quite fatalistic. It was just like, right, we’re going to do the maddest thing we can think of and just see what happens.”
Two months later, he said goodbye to his mum with a vague idea to walk around the world. He would walk to the coast, cross the Channel, and see what happened next. In doing so, his entire life – career, relationship, possessions – was dismantled overnight.
“I tore my whole life apart,” he says bluntly. “I had a girlfriend of three years; I gave up the flat, moved back in with my mum. Then I just left. Looking back on it now, I think ‘what the hell was I up to?’
“I left mum’s front door and, I just thought, first stop, we’ll get to Portsmouth. Then, once I got to France I made the choice: it was either go left to Asia or right to South America.”
Because of the time of year, Merlin opted to cross Europe through the summer, then travel to South America and walk the length of that continent during their summer.
A city boy through and through, Merlin was entirely out of his comfort zone. “None of my friends would describe me as an outdoorsman or a hiker,” he says. “The only camping I’d done before was at Reading Festival.”
But from London to Lisbon, across the Andes, and through Central American jungles, he’s now walked more than 15,000 kilometres – nearly 10,000 miles – spending most nights in a small tent.
For the European leg of his journey, and then again when crossing two South American deserts, Merlin used a “souped-up” baby stroller affectionately named “Junior” to carry his gear. “There were places where it was 11 days between towns,” he says. “You can’t carry that much on your back.”
When terrain became more manageable, Merlin ditched the buggy, giving it to a local farmer, and went back to a simple backpack – which now holds everything he owns.
His daily expenses hover around £5, thanks to self-sufficiency and a minimalist setup. “I worked as a financial advisor and had a little bit of money from my dad when he died,” he explains. “So I invested it. And with my expenses this low, I actually made money on my investments in the time I spent walking across South America.”
Although admitting to being in “a perpetual state of exhaustion”, Merlin has sustained no serious injuries, despite walking over forty kilometres a day, often in intense climates, and having done no training.
“People train for months to run a marathon. I just walked out the door. Humans are built to walk – that’s literally why we’re the shape we are.
“Toenails come and go, unfortunately. It’s quite alarming when the first couple come off, but then you realise that it just happens with this kind of lifestyle. On some toes I’m on the third new toenail.
“The knees, the hips, they do get a bit sore. But then you wake up the next day and it’s another day.
“I’ve also lost 12 kilograms since leaving and I’ve lost a centimetre in height.”
Merlin relishes the freedom of his solitary challenge. There is no rigid itinerary. No checkpoints. No finish line mapped out in detail.
“I plan about a month ahead at a time,” Merlin explains. “In places like Central America, countries are small – it only takes a week or two to cross. In bigger places like Argentina, I talk to locals and adjust my plans based on their advice.”
He relies on an app called Komoot to plan trails on the fly. “It’s amazing. Adventurers used to spend months poring over maps. Now I can plan a day’s walk in two minutes.”
Even now, with a rough goal of reaching Asia after North America, he admits there’s still no masterplan. “The grand idea is to walk back into my mum’s front door in London,” he says. “But between now and then, it’s just seeing what the infinite possibility of life throws at me.”
Although it’s not his ultimate goal, Merlin does hope to earn a place among the select few “pedestrian circumnavigators” to be recognised by Guinness World Records. To qualify, he must meet the World Runners Association’s criteria, which include walking at least 26,232 kilometres (16,300 miles) on foot and crossing at least four continents coast to coast. To date, fewer than 20 people have accomplished this remarkable feat.
In fact, Merlin aims to walk just over 40,000km – the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth.
Merlin also hopes to write a book chronicling his adventures, and he has filled several notebooks with his daily diary. “Otherwise, I’d never remember everything that’s happened,” he explains.
If there’s one theme Merlin returns to in those diaries, it’s the sheer generosity and sociability of strangers.
“In Argentina, it was actually hard to eat alone. If I sat down in an eating place in a town, people would insist I join them. It’s the loveliest thing, but sometimes it’s exhausting when all you want is to fall into your food after 40 kilometres.”
He’s often been invited in for meals, drinks, or a place to sleep. “In Colombia, I was endlessly invited in for beers, even if it was 10 in the morning.”
Far from lonely, the journey has turned out to be astonishingly social – especially in rural areas. “People are just curious. In places where nothing much changes, if someone walks into town on foot, everyone wants to know why.
“One guy took me to meet the mayor. Another drove me around to get supplies. That level of hospitality just changes you.”
It wasn’t until Merlin was already on the road that he decided to raise money for SHINE. “I was looking for a children’s charity,” he says. “So much of what people raise for is reactive – fixing things after they’re broken. I wanted something more proactive. Something about potential.
“I also wanted to support something outside of London, because there are a lot of amazing charities there, but they seem to raise a lot of money compared to those elsewhere in the country, where there is actually greater need.”
Merlin was struck by the regional inequalities in the UK education system – especially how a child’s postcode can predict their outcomes in school, and in life. “I knew I wasn’t going to raise millions. I’m not a social media star. But I wanted the money to go where it could do the most good.”
SHINE’s mission – improving education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in the North of England – fit perfectly. “I saw what SHINE were doing and thought, that’s it. That’s what I want to support.”
Knowing that he is raising money to help children is a good motivator when the going gets tough.
There are days, Merlin admits, when the whole thing feels impossible.
“Food poisoning is a killer,” he says. “A couple of weeks ago I drank a smoothie that had gone bad and ended up vomiting out of my tent on a windy beach in El Salvador.”
But there are highs that make up for everything.
“The culture of Colombia is just so fun. The vibrancy there is unlike anything I’ve experienced. They’ll start dancing at any opportunity – whether it’s in the middle of the street outside a pharmacy or in the supermarket. If the right song comes on, they just can’t help themselves – it’s so much fun.
Another highlight was Peru. “Walking through the Andes was incredibly moving – it felt like I’d been there before in a dream,” he says.
And in the Ecuadorian Amazon, he spent weeks surrounded by jungle. “The noises at night… it was like nothing I’d ever experienced.”
Nature, he says, has become not just a backdrop but a guide. “You sleep without walls long enough, and you start to feel a rhythm to it all. You stop feeling like a person on the planet and start feeling like a part of it.
“You can feel your lungs open up; you can feel your blood rushing; you can feel your mind open up. It turns into a form of meditation. And you end up chasing this kind of euphoria.”
Merlin estimates he’s about halfway through his journey. He’ll walk through Mexico, then up through the United States. After that, Asia beckons – New Zealand, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, and across the “Stans” back toward Europe. “If I have the energy, I’ll walk a stretch in Africa too.”
He expects to be walking for another three to five years. “It depends,” he says. “Some places, you just want to stay and understand them. That’s part of it.”
What happens after this grand adventure ends?
He laughs. “I used to complain about how much I hated London. But now, I don’t know. I appreciate it more now. But on the other hand, I’ve found the most amazing parts of my life outside cities.”
He imagines every possibility. “One of the reasons I did this was just to dive into the unknown.”
For now, his aim is simple: walk, meet people, learn, give back.
“I gave up everything for this,” he says. “So no matter how tough it gets, I remind myself – this is everything now.”
Merlin isn’t raising funds for himself or to aid him in his challenge. “Some people have tried to give me money to fund his expenses,” he says. “I tell them – give it to the kids. I’m able to support myself. Everything else is extra.”
To support Merlin’s journey and help SHINE improve education for disadvantaged children, visit his JustGiving page. Your donation won’t buy walking gear or plane tickets – it’ll go straight to classrooms, communities, and children.
