There are many fascinating facts and figures regarding Mr. Blessitt and his cross. As of 2018, Mr. Blessitt has been carrying his cross for fifty years. The cross is twelve feet long and six feet wide, made of four-inch by four-inch wood and weighing forty-five pounds. It had to be redesigned with bolts to be taken apart and reassembled quickly to travel with the cross in flights. An inflatable rubber tire added to the bottom of the cross bore the burden of the weight and helped Mr. Blessitt continue to travel many miles a day.
In fifty years of carrying his cross, Mr. Blessitt has walked over 42,279 miles (68,041 km). He is one of the few people in the world to have circumnavigated the world on foot. It is estimated that the cross has traveled about 20,000 miles by boat and has flown approximately 2,320,000 miles by airplane, and 435,000 miles by automobile. Mr. Blessitt has carried his cross across all seven continents. He needs to replace the soles in his shoes about every five hundred miles. The longest he ever walked in a day was forty-seven miles alone and seventy-two miles with help. He spent two years walking from West Africa to East Africa, and two years walking from Mexico to Colombia. The total number of different countries and island groups that Mr. Blessitt has carried his cross across is 324. He was arrested twenty-four times, mainly in Hollywood, California.
Mr. Blessitt, in fifty years of carrying a cross, has traveled between 15 and 16 percent of the distance to the moon. He was first accepted into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1996 for the Longest Walk. On November 16, 2004, Guinness celebrated their 50th anniversary at a beautiful celebration in New York City, and Mr. Blessitt was one of the special guests.
During his many walks around the world, Blessitt has held an audience with many world and religious leaders, including Billy Graham, Pope John Paul II, Yasser Arafat, George W. Bush, and Muammar al-Gaddafi.
Mr. Blessitt has a website that tells all about his travels and also provides many tips and advice for walking. He discusses the proper ways to walk, including the best way to point your toes. He discusses the best types of shoes and boots, including how your feet swell in the heat and shrink in the cold. He offers many tips about water, how to obtain safe water and what water to avoid. Finally, he outlines how various foods should be cooked and what foods to avoid at all costs.
Return to the previous page| Birth Date: | 27 Oct, 1940 |
| Age: | 79 yrs |
| Occupations: | Explorer Athletics competitor Preacher |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Greenville |
| Gender: | Male |
| Description: | American Christian preacher and pedestrian circumnavigator |
| Net Worth 2021: | 250 thousand |
