Taking one step at a time

AFTER three years walking the globe in a bid to document climate change, Malaga’s Nacho Dean, 35, has finally returned home.

Arriving in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Dean is thought to be the only Spaniard to achieve this remarkable feat, and speaking of which, must be pretty weary after walking through four continents, 31 countries, and a total of 33,000 kilometres. 

Welcomed by friends and family, Dean explained that, ‘It was a dream that I had, to walk around the world’, as he arrived back in Madrid where he started his journey. 

A renowned free spirit, Nacho wanted to see the world whilst raising an important message to care for nature and planet earth.  ‘I needed to launch an environmental message for the care of nature and planet earth, and the most savage way to demonstrate my commitment was to walk’. 

After quitting his life-guard job in Madrid, Dean started on his epic journey, to encounter different people with only a few belongings packed into a trekking cycle. 

Having experienced so many different countries and cultures, Dean muses that fundamentally people are good, ‘Sometimes we have a distorted image and believe the entire world is war and killings, but the majority of humanity is good’.

Very often people would take pity and offer the intrepid traveller food and a roof over his head. Dean argues that consumerism is destroying the planet, and states that if we could forget this obsession ‘we would be happier and healthier’.

‘The people were the treasure of my journey.

‘There are people with almost nothing who are happy and generous with the little they have’.

However it wasn’t all plain sailing. Nacho found himself in three heart-stopping situations, as he came close to a terrorist attack when travelling in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was detained by the military on the Iranian border and had to escape from gangsters in South America. 

Steering clear of tourist attractions Dean admits that loneliness was sometimes an issue.  ‘I would talk to myself and sing. ‘Sometimes I thought I was going crazy from top to bottom’ he laughed. Dean experienced many different environmental problems ‘I passed though zones which were suffering droughts when there should have been monsoons or where forests had been burnt for crop planting’.

‘On my voyage I became aware of the distressing state our planet is suffering as we continue to produce real climate change.’
As he hangs up his walking shoes, Dean is currently compiling all his experiences for the publication of his new book and says he is completely satisfied and has decided never to be negative, not even for a second.