Manxman Steven Primrose-Smith will begin a walk that will last more than half a decade on April 1.

Starting and ending in Port St Mary, Mr Primrose-Smith will travel along the equator as much as he can, raising money for charity Médecins Sans Frontières which is currently helping people in Ukraine.

The 51-year-old is a travel writer who, over the last 10 years, has cycled 50,000 miles on various projects and has written six books about his journeys.

Mr Primrose-Smith explained his motivation for wanting to take on such a challenge – only completed by a handful others in history, the first being in 1970.

He said: ‘Up until 2020, I was doing lots of cycling but over the last two years I haven’t been able to travel due to Covid and have been itching to get away again and for another big challenge.

‘I did my best to get in shorter trips that I hope to write about but Covid really held that up because the thing is with travel writing, it’s not really about the places you go but the people you meet and the stories you find out about them. So because of Covid, everybody was keeping their distance and I wasn’t meeting anyone. Plus, all the restaurants and bars were closed. For example, last summer I went to the Scottish islands and I didn’t get to speak to many people.

‘This meant I wasn’t really making much money as I wasn’t writing so I started thinking about bigger projects I could do as cheaply as possible and this came to mind.’

For him, this is about more than just the walk.

He said: ‘It’s very much about people, like I said.

‘I will be learning as many languages as I can as I walk and travel through numerous countries. It’ll only be the basics but I think there’s nothing more useful than learning a language in the place it originates.’

The trip should take around five to six years to walk an equal distance to the equator, he says.

Mr Primrose-Smith added: ‘If I were to do 20 miles a day, six days a week, it would take me almost exactly four years but that won’t happen.

‘I don’t know how many days off I’ll be having but there will be times I need to see my family and friends so I will stop and fly back to them for a few days.

‘Plenty of people have cycled around the world but when I research it not many have walked it. I think it’ll be a very interesting thing to do.

‘There are times when having a bike can be a real burden anyway – it might get you places more quickly but it’s difficult to do the things you want to do like explore museums since all your possessions are on it. You also take in more about your surroundings when you walk.’

His adventure is entirely self-funded and the writer will be restricted to spending £8 per day.

‘It’ll be about prioritising buying food. From there, anything I don’t spend each day I can use to buy myself a hotel room every couple of weeks,’ he said.

‘That’ll be easier in places like India and Thailand where there things are cheaper.

‘I’m renting out a flat in Blackburn too which will bring in some money.’

In the past he has completed a trip on £1 a day so is well aware of how to make money last.

When asked how his family felt about it, Mr Primrose-Smith said they had become used to him taking on challenges like this.

He said he was excited for the journey. ‘You don’t really think about the distance, you just think about getting from town to town,’ he added.

‘It’ll be exciting to learn more about all of the places I walk through since I’ll be mostly emerging from countryside into cities and you learn a lot about a place doing that. I’m just ready to go now.’