I escape from the mediocrity of normal life, the restless dissatisfaction of its conventions and routine and the crushing tedium of much that ensnares me at home. I’mm not proud of this. But the heady rush of freedom I feel each time I escape keeps me coming back for more.

But I’mm also escaping in order to achieve difficult things. There will be challenges and fears to overcome to earn the reward of personal satisfaction. I’mm not opting out of life. I’mm opting in.

Escaping to the open road is not a solution to life’s difficulties. It’s not going to win the beautiful girl or stop the debtor’s letters piling up on your doormat. I’mm not claiming that it will. (It will probably do the opposite, actually!) I’mm just saying it’s an escape. An escape portal to a world and a life that feels more real to me. Leaving it all behind.

On this walk my feet and my shoulders are the only vital parts of my body. My face, my looks, my hairstyle are irrelevant. I chopped off all my hair before I began and did not shave throughout the walk. The social conventions of home do not matter out here. Out here it’s only about seeing whether you have the spirit and the guts to succeed.

I take a photograph of myself resting in a bus shelter. It’s a photo that sums up the defining era of my life. The years on the road. The thousands and thousands of miles. Thousands of brief rests like this. I sit, hot but relaxed, and smile at the camera. Nobody else sees that moment. Nobody can help me. It is just me. Me, my thoughts and the open road. The road where every horizon promises new adventure. Now if that isn’t escape…

This text is an extract from There Are Other Rivers, available as a giant mappazine or a free Kindle sample.