Logo: Walk 2008 - Children in Need
When, a few years ago, a complete stranger called Mark wrote to me staying he was walking round the world, and would I help him with some funding, I thought “yeah, right, walking round the world? Of course you are!” But it was a good cause and I thought he might get as far as Belgium so I sent him a few quid, wished him bon voyage and thought no more about it.
A long time later I was watching the local news in some small town in Australia and they carried a brief report about some lunatic pom pushing a baby stroller round the world. “My God” I thought – “it’s him!”
A long time later, I was chatting on my mobile to a mate of mine who was working on a radio station somewhere in deepest Hicksville, USA, and he said “There’s an English nutter on the news here, pushing a pram around the world”. “My God” I thought – “it’s him again … and he’s still going!”
This book is the story of one remarkable man’s devotion to his private Boy’s Own adventure. This is not the tale of a pampered rich boy’s gap year; this is a working class Essex lad’s day by day account of the realisation of a dream.
It started in the planning stage on his dining room table in Southend and never, ever really wandered off course for the 400+ days this epic trip took.
He writes candidly of the highs and lows of his amazing journey: deep depression in Poland; bitter cold and infuriating bureaucracy in Russia, the loneliness of New Year’s Eve somewhere in Eastern Europe in a tiny, cheap room shaking his own hand at midnight while singing Auld Lang Syne to himself; of the joy of finally getting to Australia and being able to speak in English again; of the Southern states of the USA; of the joy of arriving in New York, knowing he was almost home; of somehow persuading his 77-year-old dad to join him on the last ‘little hop’ from Salisbury to Buckingham Palace.
It’s an incredible story but this is not a Hollywood script, this is not Forrest Gump, this is an extraordinary tale of a young guy who didn’t just ‘talk the talk’ he really did walk the ultimate walk.
Chris Tarrant OBE, TV Presenter & Journalist
One morning, at the start of May 2005, Mark Cundy set out on his daily stroll – pushing a pram full of his belongings on a 19 km saunter from the Moscow suburban town of Krasnogorsk to Red Square. By itself, it was a quite a robust workout to be sure. What was far more impressive was that he had walked all the way from London to get there.
In fact, the walk from London to Moscow was just the first leg of a ‘world walk’, which also saw Cundy saunter from Melbourne to Sydney as the second leg and from the west coast to the east coast of the USA. While the walk was done for the benefit of Cancer Research UK, more than anything Cundy set out on this amazing journey in pursuit of a dream and a sense of achievement. And now he has documented his incredible adventures in the soon to be released book, A Man and a Pram.
Starting out with an explanation of what possessed him to go on such a seemingly absurd journey and how he went about planning it, A Man and A Pram goes on to recount Mark’s day-to-day life on foot: the obstacles he encountered, the people he met and the places he saw. One can’t begin to imagine how the sight of a man in his late 30s, trundling along the world’s busiest highways and pushing a pram must have shocked passing motorists. The sheer strangeness of Cundy’s venture makes the book a very different sort of travelogue.
Of particular interest to Way to Russia readers would be Mark’s adventures in Russia. Cundy walked from the border town of Sebezh to Moscow as the final part of the European leg of his trip, and then took that most famous of all train journeys along the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok. Beginning with his trepidation at crossing the border and documenting his time in, and walks between, obscure towns all the way to Moscow, the Russian chapters are perhaps the most entertaining in the whole book.
Along the way he encounters all the prototype Russian characters and describes them with humour:
"The guards on the train were all female and there was absolutely no doubt about the fact that they were in charge. I caught mine on the first morning gazing wistfully out of the window, no doubt reminiscing about her Olympic shot-putting days."
Likewise, he experiences the inevitable run-in with the law and perfectly captures the fear that this experience can put into the foreign traveler. Upon dutifully reporting to the police station in Vladivostok for a registration offence:
“I found the reception area with glass frontage and to the side a small metal desk, reassuringly occupied by a uniformed man holding a semiautomatic rifle.”
But along with the usual difficulties and peculiarities of travel in Russia, Cundy develops that same respect for (maybe even infatuation with) the people, which is so common among those who venture to the country:
"The Russians with whom I had direct contact were bluff, lively characters. There was a great energy about them, in the way they walked, talked and indeed how they helped me along the way… Once I had got over my brush with the authorities, I found myself in a land of undoubted harsh conditions but tough natives with good hearts."
Filled with countless funny anecdotes and trenchant observations, A Man and a Pram is a great light and entertaining read for any armchair traveler. But, more than anything, A Man and a Pram is a testament to wanderlust – that inescapable desire that causes people to abandon reason and stability and head out into unknown lands simply because they feel the need to experience it for themselves. And, more than that, it is an inspiration for those who would love to escape the grind of their daily routine to pursue a dream.
Greg Klemm, Journalist
I applaud Mark Cundy's efforts on behalf of Cancer Research UK and wish him the very best of luck with his book.
Jeffrey Archer, Internationally acclaimed author and playwright
Mark Cundy is a man who decided to walk around the world to raise money for charity, and there, in a nutshell, is the substance of this incredible book.
My first impressions when reading about Mark’s global exploits concerned the number of uncanny similarities between he and I. He had been a training development manager, as I had once been. He’d given up the job to do something infinitely more fulfilling, as had I. Mark hates it when people use the phrase “statistically speaking…” I use the phrase all the time, much to the annoyance of my colleagues, I’m sure. There are other similarities, but more of those presently.
If there’s a fault with this book it’s simply that it is too short. As Mark travels from country to country with all his worldly goods packed into a “stroller”, he details every walk and ride in his heroic effort to complete his mission. Breakfasts in seedy motels, encounters with the police, chance conversations at dilapidated gas stations…they’re all in there. You just wish there was more.
Mark - I’ve never met him – has a heart like a lion. As he trotted the globe and recorded his exploits as he walked literally thousands of miles along deserted highways and byways. And yet – and here’s the amazing thing – he both acts and reacts as if he’s taking his pet dog for a walk before Sunday lunch. Never once does he draw perilously close to the edge of insanity, even during the scarier moments. The reader can sense that deep down he just knows that everything will turn out okay in the end.
Whilst travelling through Germany he found lodgings in a hotel for the night. It had just closed for the season, but the management simply handed Mark the keys and told him to lock the building up when he left. Somehow you couldn’t imagine this happening in Hammersmith. Cundy either has the luck of the Devil with him or the rascally charm of Hugh Grant. Maybe it’s both.
Almost predictably, Cundy’s scariest exploits took place in the good ol’ US of A, and a chance encounter with a mountain lion was only the beginning. This would be bad enough for the hardiest of travellers, but when you’re also suffering from a huge abscess very close to the end of your digestive system that lies below the equator it just seems worse.
Mark also had the opportunity to take part in a Native American sweat lodge ceremony, as did I once in Louisiana. His experience was so uncannily similar to mine I could have written the account for him – or vice versa. And then there was his run-ins with the constabulary. I had two in the USA myself – once for photographing a tree without a license and another time for reading a newspaper whilst standing next to a car. Cundy’s encounters were altogether scarier, although thankfully not absolutely terrifying.
I could go on for ages, but I won’t. Just by the book, but heed my warning; don’t start to read it unless you’ve got time to finish it in one sitting. This may take a day or two, but you won’t be able to put it down.
Mark Cundy is the sort of guy who encapsulates everything we want to be but haven’t got the bottle to accomplish. You’ll just love this page-turner from the outset.
Mike Hallowell, Journalist
A vivid account of one traveller's journey for discovery and his determination for a cause. Mark Cundy stood by his word and wouldn't compromise his mission for some luxuries that were offered.
Reading this would motivate anyone to travel or at least step out of their comfort zone more. It's a written adventure worth exploring!
Sarah Davison, KVII Reporter (Afilliate to ABC News, Texas)
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