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From Wikipedia: > He was stranded twenty miles from the nearest settlement, with only enough food and water to last ten days. To survive, Leray used parts of h
by RandallBrown 2y ago
From Wikipedia:
> He was stranded twenty miles from the nearest settlement, with only enough food and water to last ten days. To survive, Leray used parts of his broken-down car to build a motorcycle, and twelve days after the accident was able to drive it to a village 20 miles away.
I admire his ingenuity, but I would have probably just walked.
- stephencanon 2y agoYeah, walking 20 miles, desert or not, is a far better plan.
- hinkley 2y agoFiguring out how to carry enough stuff might be a problem, but making a sling or primitive backpack from the upholstery should be doable with a knife.
- usefulcat 2y ago3-4 Mph is a reasonable walking speed, so 20 miles is around 6-7 hours. Not saying it would be pleasant, but certainly seems doable.
- stephencanon 2y agoIn the desert, you often really don't want to be walking midday, but if the moon is out doing 20 miles in a night isn't too bad, and doing it split over two days is fine. 5 or 6 liters of water plus some food would be plenty, depending on what you have available to carry that ~15 pounds splitting into two days may be more comfortable. Either way, infinitely less risky than building a motorcycle.
- hinkley 2y ago4 mph takes talent, especially over distance. Andthat’s on hard surfaces. From what I understand walking on sand is deceptively taxing. I’d say 2-2.5 and not as the bird flies distances. So ten to fifteen hours of walking if your feet let you.
- stephencanon 2y agoThe desert in question isn't all sandy dunes; there's a lot of rocky or compacted surface (see photo), so you can make pretty decent time (but yeah, sustaining 4mph would be pushing it for most people).
- xarope 2y agoI've done 97km in 26 hours before, in the Sahara (I think we started around 8am, and finished around 10ish the next morning), which works out to about 2.3mph, so I'd agree 2-2.5mph is reasonable. hmm, [0] this says the longest stage was 91km in 2009 (I did it in 2015), so I could be wrong, but I'm going by what my garmin told me. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_des_Sables https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_des_Sables
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- HPsquared 2y agoThe surface is hard enough to drive a car on. Walking can't be all that bad on such a surface.
- RandallBrown 2y agoThat was my thought as well. He might not have had something to carry the food and water, but making something to carry it would probably be easier than building a motorcycle.
- hinkley 2y agoWhy spend three days doing a one-off task when you can spend 10 days automating it?
- m463 2y agohttps://xkcd.com/530/ https://xkcd.com/530/
- DrNosferatu 2y agoDid he know the next settlement was only 20 miles away?
- Levitz 2y agoReally, really cool honestly. Tiny question though, where the hell are his clothes?
- userbinator 2y agoIt's a desert. I'm pretty sure the temperature is such that wearing anything but the absolute minimum would be extremely uncomfortable.
- mulmen 2y agoYou know what’s really uncomfortable? A full body sunburn.
- mikepurvis 2y agoIndeed, and traditional dress bears that out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawb
- elliottkember 2y agoThe settlement was 20 miles away, but that doesn't mean he only drove 20 miles, or that he knew which direction the settlement was in!
- foobarbecue 2y agoI don't buy it. This guy says the bike was built but the situation was staged; that seems possible. https://sahara-overland.com/2017/08/05/the-2cv-motorcycle-survival-story/ https://sahara-overland.com/2017/08/05/the-2cv-motorcycle-su...