A better bet might be to go from Russia to China, then pick up a freighter cruise. This is an established, albeit unusual, way of getting around by hopping on a container ship and taking a spare, surprisingly spacious, cabin. For about $130 per day you could get from, say, Yantian in China to Seattle in the USA, or Vancouver in Canada within three weeks. (For anyone wondering if you could just do Yantian to Yantian on this freighter, yes you can, but it takes 97 days.)
Crossing the USA and Canada by road or rail will be easy, compared to that. Seattle to New York City on the train takes 2.5 days. We’re about 35-40 days in now, depending on how that Russia to China hop went, and with only the Atlantic left. 40 days to cross the Atlantic? The solo rowing record is four days quicker than that, so you should be fine.
Or, I’d recommend taking the Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southampton, which would be a leisurely seven nights of luxury. From Southampton, Southwestern railway ought to sort you out, taking you into London Waterloo within 90 minutes. It’s a 23 minute walk from Waterloo to the Reform Club on Pall Mall. Stop for a pint on the way, if you fancy – you’ve earned one. You can’t go wrong with a Badger at The Ship and Shovel on Craven Passage.
There, done. Very much estimated cost of the journey in 2021 (assuming there was no pandemic, and with a modest daily spend, and including the pint): £5,174. Get saving.
Will everything run smoothly?
A lot depends on this, of course. Written down, as above, the route looks a breeze. In reality, if one of those journeys is cancelled because of a mechanical issue, some quirk of local bureaucracy or you miss a connection, you could be waiting for days, wasting precious time. Things are easier with the advent of mobile phones and easy access to the internet, but as Palin found out when various unforeseeable setbacks delayed him, it isn’t always as easy as it looks.
You could always take things into your own hands, of course. Five years ago, the British cyclist Mark Beaumont cycled around the world in 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes. He set off from Paris and pedalled 18,000 miles around the globe, via New Zealand. Admittedly, there were flights involved.
