Vinod Bajaj, a 70-year-old man, who has been living in Limerick, Ireland for over 40 years, hopes for a Guinness World Record as he claims that he has completed an ‘Earth Walk’. It means that he has covered over 40,075 kms (approx. value of the Earth’s circumference) by walking, within a period of 1,500 days. He used a pedometer app for tracking the distance he covered on foot, each day. He states that he has achieved this by walking within his home city of Limerick.
Vinod Bajaj was born in Punjab. He grew up in Chennai and moved to Glasgow, Scotland in 1975 and is currently living in Castletroy, a suburban district in the city of Limerick.
He initially began his journey of walking in August 2016, as a fitness routine to lose some weight. During the first three months, he lost around 8 kgs of weight. In the following six months, he lost another 12 kgs of weight. He did not have any specific diet plan and relied entirely on his walking routine. He carried some eatables with him and listened to radio during his walking sessions. He also walked indoors such as inside malls etc. to tackle rough weather conditions.
During the first two years, he achieved 20–25 kms per day by walking for about four to five hours. By the end of the third year, he was walking about 30 kms per day in seven hours and during the last year, he started completing 40–45 kms a day in nine hours. The longest distance that he could cover in a day was 55 kms.
By the end of the first year, he realised that he had covered around 7,600 kms which is the distance between Ireland and India, and by the end of the second year, he had covered approximately 15,200 kms, more than the circumference of the Moon (around 10,917 kms). This motivated him to walk further and cover the circumference of Mars, which is around 21,344 kms. During the Covid-19 lockdown period, his walking was restricted to a 5 km radius around his house thereby repeating the same walking routes over and over. He stated that on September 21, 2020 he had finally completed his ‘Earth Walk’, covering a distance of about 40,107 kms in a period of 1,496 days without stepping out of Limerick.
The Guinness World Record has accepted the application of Vinod Bajaj for a new record. His application is currently under review.