As of April 9, we have walked 12,990,000 steps!
Congratulations to Everyone for your participation and hard work!
Give yourselves a pat on the back!
Photo Courtesy of David Pursehouse
We have reached our goal of Okinawa, Japan! This week we walked 4,210,000, which was 3,208 km!
Okinawa is comprised of over 160 islands and 1.5 million people. Why Okinawa? This longevity paradise where the young and old mix together to ‘push the happiness’, drink guava juice laced with rice wine and dedicate themselves to their carefree way of living, loving, and being…even up to their 100s and beyond.
Photo Courtesy of mxmstryo
When Dr. Suzuki opened up his medical centre in Okinawa in 1975, he found 40 centenarians on the small main island and discovered that they were not only numerous but unusually healthy. Today, there are thirty-four centenarians per 100,000 people in Okinawa, compared with ten per 100,000 in the United States, with an uncommonly high number of people aged over 105.
Gerontologists subsequently studying old Okinawans have found them to have freakishly youthful arteries, vibrant immune systems, excellent bone health, and tip-top mental agility. Many elderly Okinawans claim never to have had a day’s sickness in their lives, and when they do eventually die, they tend to be ill only for the last few months.
Researchers have also found – and this is good news for the rest of us mortals – that Okinawan longevity is due not so much to genes as to certain diet and lifestyle habits. Studies which looked at 600 centenarians, concluded that a diet based mainly on plants and some protein from fish and fermented soy products, plenty of exercise out in the fresh air and sunshine, close social networks and strong spiritual beliefs make up the formula for their prolonged youth and exceptional visor.
Thank you to the research of Dr. Suzuki, Diane Haworth, and Michael Varbaek.
PLEase continue to log your steps this week and let's see how far we can walk back towards vancouver!
Week Three: March 26 to April 1, 2016
As of March 26, we have walked 8,780,000 steps!
This week we logged an amazing 4,430,000 steps and burned close to 89,000 calories! We bid farewell to North America and made landfall in Russia at Lavrentiya, before travelling to the city of Yakutsk and ended the week at Komsomolsk-on-Amur. We travelled 3,375 km but spent the whole time in Russia, an incredibly large country. As always, we found some fun facts about the places we went through. Next week we will be travelling to Japan and hopefully arrive at Okinawa. Keep on trekking!
Do svidaniya! (duh svee-dah-nee-ye) Russia.
Konnichiwa Japan!
Indigenous Harpoon counterweight
Fun Fact about Lavrentiya:
Lavrentiya is an old whaling village on the Bering strait that saw the first introduction of an ancient whaling harpoon which had a unique object attached to it for balance. It was a winged object carved out of walrus tusk, and it was used to help counter weight the harpoon when villagers went out to hunt whales.
Photo courtesy of Pavel Kirillov
Fun Facts about Yakutsk:
- Welcome to the coldest city in the world!
- Bling Bling! Here we can find the largest supplier of diamonds in the world.
- Yatusk also boasts the greatest temperature differential in the world, from days in the winter averaging negative 38 degrees Celsius to summer days of +30 degrees! Pack your bikini and Mukluks!
Photo Courtesy of Alex Malev
Fun Facts about Komsomolsk-on-Amur:
- This town was largely built up by labour prisoners in the 1930’s for purposes of Russia’s largest aviation plant.
- During the start of the second world war it produced the DB-3 which proved to be one of the most formidable fighting aircrafts of the Red Army.This was the plane that on the night of August 8, 1941, mounted the first major bombing raid on Berlin.
Week Two: March 19 to March 25, 2016
As of March 25, 2016, we have taken 4,350,000 million steps!
From March 19 to March 25 we walked an amazing 3,425,000 steps, which was 2,600 km! This week we bid farewell to Canada as we made our way into Alaska, through the city of Anchorage and the town of Wales before arriving at the Diomede Islands. Our intrepid hikers burned more than 70,000 calories! Keep up the amazing work. Next week we will be leaving North America as our journey takes us to Russia.
Mt Denali courtesy of Sandra Brown Jensen
Fun Facts about Anchorage, Alaska.
Anchorage, Alaska is a beautiful city lying just outside the highest mountain in North America, Mt Denali (Mt McKinley pre 2015) at 20,320 ft and the 3rd highest peak in the world!
Contrary to that, just off the coast of Alaska is the Aleutian trench which is the lowest point in North America at 25,000 ft below sea level.
Fun Facts about Wales, Alaska and the Diomede Islands.
Little Diomede Island courtesy of NOAA
- Making our way to Wales, Alaska takes our walkers to the furthest west point in mainland North America.
- Our last stop leads us to Diomede Islands, which consists of Big Diomede island, Russia and Little Diomede Island, USA.
- These two islands are separated by 2 miles and can be walked across when the ice is frozen in the winter months, allowing you to walk to Russia from the U.S.
- This is also the separation between the International date line where tomorrow can see yesterday!
Week One: March 15 to March 18, 2016
The walk kicked off on March 15 and as of March 18 our combined steps were 925,000, which was 700 kilometres!
Our total calories burned was 19,747.
We departed Vancouver and the Fraser Valley and are made our way through the Terrace Regional District of British Columbia.
Fun Facts about Terrace, B.C.
- Home to the Spirit Bear, an animal unique to B.C.
- Terrace was once the cedar pole capital of the world. At its height, Terrace produced over 50,000 poles a year. The largest utility pole, of 162 feet, was cut here and is still standing in New York City.
- Terrace is very proud of it Senior Athletes.
Our Next Update for your steps is on Friday, April 1.