The English Channel: Virtual Adventure

A few weeks ago, I started a "Virtual Mission" to walk or jog the distance up Mount Fuji. While that adventure is still ongoing, my fiancée and I decided to join The Conqueror's shortest virtual adventure: the 21 mile crossing of the English Channel.

We gave ourselves one week to hike the 21 miles in the hills of Saraburi Province during our recent camping trip to Namtok Samlan National Park, but finished in 5 days.

The journey took me from the Cliffs of Dover in England to Cap Gris-Nez on the coast of France.

How it works is, you walk a certain distance, then log it into an app. You track your progress towards a goal (in this case, the distance across the English Channel). Along the way, you can see your virtual location on the built-in street view. You also receive virtual postcards at certain milestones (like the one below) along with informative emails teaching you all about the history and culture of the spots you are virtually visiting. It's super cool! It is a wonderful way to set a fitness goal while still scratching the travel itch that I think a lot of us are missing this year.

After finishing your virtual adventure, they post you a super cool medal. I should receive it in a week or two.

In 2021 I intend to complete as many of these virtual adventures as I can! I'll get lots of exercise, the chance to travel virtually (even if travel in real life is impossible right now), the added benefit of being able to learn a lot about some amazing places in the world, and collect amazing medals (I'll post about my first medal as soon as it arrives).

And another cool thing is that at every 20% mark that you pass along your goal, The Conqueror Challenge plants a real tree in your honor! After completing this challenge, Pinky and I had planted a total of ten trees in the real world. Pretty neat, right? It's a good way to encourage fitness while also giving back to the world.

Here are some of the cool things that I learned on my crossing of the English Channel:

• The Strait of Dover is the world's busiest waterway, with some 800+ vessels crossing between England and France every day!
• The Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel, which runs an impressive 50km beneath the Channel ferries 60,000 passengers daily between the two countries, and takes a mere 35 minutes.
• The idea of a cross-channel tunnel was conceived of in the 1850s, but the technology to carry out such a monumental task wasn't available until the late 20th century.
• The Chunnel was over time and massively over budget. When the massive tunnel boring machines met in the middle, the English boring machine dug its way beneath the French one, where it sits to this day deep beneath the channel.
• The water is cold - often as chilly as 57-64°F, and the waves can reach up to 6 ft high. Nevertheless, a number of swimmers have crossed the 21 mile Channel in amazing times. The fastest crossing was in 2012, when Trent Grimsey of Australia broke the record in just under 7 hours!

If you enjoy this type of post, you're in luck! I'll be back as soon as I finish my virtual trek up Mt. Fuji to share what I've learned about my climb up Japan's most famous sacred mountain.