Dutch war veteran walks 3000 kilometers barefoot through Australia: ‘It was quite a walk’ Inland

“It has been quite a walk,” says Nooteboom by telephone from Australia. “It was unbelievably hard, especially because of all the stones stuck in your feet. Although people were a bit disappointed when they saw the bottoms of my feet, because they actually still look very good. But inside everything is bruised and broken.”

Nooteboom was employed by the Ministry of Defense for ten years and was deployed to Afghanistan three times. He left for Australia, faced psychological problems and found relief in walking barefoot. “But also by talking about it. You notice that there is a taboo among veterans on discussing feelings of suicide and depression. That is why I made this trip, to draw attention to that.”

To increase publicity, he chose to walk barefoot, he says. “A normal trip of 3000 kilometers produces much less publicity than on bare feet. No, I didn’t practice for that. Nothing can prepare you for such a journey. I wanted to show that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Leading by example.” The journey often caused painful feet for the Dutchman. For example, ‘The Barefoot Dutchman’ wrote on Instagram after 151 days that his feet feel like a “Mike Tyson punching bag”.

That journey took him from Cairns in the north of Australia to right outside his front door in Sydney and earned him two Guinness Book of World Records, including for the longest barefoot journey. A few hundred people walked the last kilometers with him, now it’s time for a beer. “I am incredibly wrecked, I will not do anything for the next two to three weeks and rest and recover.”

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