The Twitchhiker supports 7 Wonders in 7 Days
Here’s some pretty exciting news.
As you may already be aware, the 7 Wonders in 7 Days trip was inspired in part by Paul Smith’s amazing Twitchhiker experience.
Earlier this year, blogger and journalist Paul Smith aka Twitchhiker travelled half way across the globe relying on the goodwill of fellow Twitterers. He made his way from Newcastle upon Tyne to Stewart Island, New Zealand in March, making the 11,000-mile trip through transport donations from people on Twitter.
His experiences were chronicled by the press in several continents as he travelled. Here’s a trip preview by Sky News and the exultant review by the Daily Mail on his return.
Here’s a YouTube clip of his appearance on ITV’s This Morning:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpeKEEMiNyk 345 264 ]
I emailed Paul a link to Manchester blogger Martin Byrant’s blog post about 7 Wonders In 7 Days, asking for his advice.
I was over the moon to receive his reply and have included a couple of excerpts from it below:
Thanks for the mail – that looks amazing! It will be such a buzz when you finally do it, and it’ll go far too quick. I’m not sure if there’s much I can do, other than promote it through @twitchhiker – there are still over 11,000 followers there so that might help.
Wow! I would have been satisfied if he stopped there but he also went on to give some sterling advice on being selfless and transparent throughout the process:
I think the best advice I could give is that you need to make sure you appear selfless throughout – there are way too many people out there ready to accuse you of having a jolly and looking for excuses to make trouble for you. They’re entirely ignorant of the stress of continuous travel, or the need to see through these ideas to generate awareness and money for charity. Any excuse to pounce on you, they will, so just stay honest and true and you’ll carry everyone with you.
I’m really thrilled by Paul’s support as he is the only living person to have successfully raised money for charity via transcontinental travel using Twitter!
It’ll be interesting to see how the thousands of people that supported Twitchhiker take to 7 Wonders in 7 Days.
The two are quite different trips though both motivated by a desire to make a difference by raising money for charity.
I can’t wait to find out!
I’m grateful for Paul’s support and am thinking of naming him honorary ‘Trip Advisor’ on the 7 Wonders in 7 Days project.
I got wondering what that role would entail. What do you think?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Image credit: Sky News
Related posts:
- Can you help us plan the 7 Wonders of Britain tour?
- This week on 7 Wonders in 7 Days
- People Would Rather Meet Than Compete
- 7 Wonders in 7 Days Social Media News Release
- Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s Charity Tuesday
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