He did it (the river thing)
I posted before about Youtuber Ed Pratt's video series about traversing the entire length of the Thames river from its ceremonial "start" location all the way to the ocean - "from source to sea". The entire playlist of videos is now complete and on YouTube and absolutely worth a watch.
When I last posted about this, I wrote a little bit about the different ways people construct map challenges and how an ambiguous map challenge can actually be more interesting and questlike than a straightforward one. I really enjoy watching people do this kind of stuff partially because its ambiguity - and the self-imposed rulesets people give themselves - make it extremely gamelike.
Pratt himself had previously traveled down a different river in the UK, possibly as prep for his Thames trip. I'm curious to see if he does something like this again, or whether he constructs an even more bizarre or convoluted map-based challenge for himself. Even small individual hikes can become bizarre challenges if the person doing the journey gives themselves enough bizarre rules and goals.
My husband and I have discussed what it would take to make a game that explores this particular dynamic. We haven't really figured it out yet, but it definitely feels like a ripe topic for SOME kind of game, someday. I have yet to find a game about walking/traversal which achieves the same kinds of exploration delights I have enjoyed in, say, the Elder Scrolls games, where traversal is often secondary to other experiences.
I am following Big Walk, a game from House House, pretty closely, because the trailer and the name definitely seem to indicate that walking is all by itself a huge part of the game. I'm curious to see if that game hits on any of the things I've been thinking about in this area. It's supposed to come out this year...