A Brief History
On October 6, 2007, Jason Lewis, otherwise an English author, completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth under his own muscular power! Other celebrated circumnavigations of the globe were by sail, by airplane, or by a combination of means, but only Lewis accomplished the act by dint of his own body.
Digging Deeper
Not a stranger to incredible athletic feats of muscle power, Lewis was also the first to cross the United States on inline skates, the first to use pedal power to cross the Pacific Ocean, and with fellow adventurer Stevie Smith the first to cross the Atlantic from Europe to North America by human power.
Lewis had set out with Smith in 1994 to conduct the circumnavigation of the Earth, using mountain bikes, pedal boats, roller blades, hiking, and kayaks. Along the way he was hit by a car, got malaria, was arrested as a spy, and survived a crocodile attack! (Note: Smith did not complete the journey.)
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lewis, Jason. Dark Waters: True Story of the First Human-Powered Circumnavigation of the Earth (Book 1). BillyFish Books, 2012.
Lewis, Jason. The Seed Buried Deep: True Story of the First Human-Powered Circumnavigation of the Earth (Book 2). BillyFish Books, 2014.
Lewis, Jason. To the Brink: True Story of the First Human-Powered Circumnavigation of the Earth (Book 3). BillyFish Books, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Tammie6123 of Lewis pedaling his boat Moksha on the River Thames in London, shortly before completing the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth (2007), is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
