YouTuber Tom Davies walks straight line across Wales

"It was a unique, fun and original idea," says Tom Davies

Imagine trying to complete a "completely pointless" task, and failing three times.

But it was fourth time lucky for Tom Davies, who finally finished his walk across Wales in a straight line.

It took four days to round off the 42-mile (67km) journey from Craignant, Shropshire, to Tal-y-bont, near Barmouth, in Gwynedd.

"When you're going up and down those mountains, not on a path, that's the challenge," he said.

Tom, 32, used GPS navigation to ensure he followed the most direct route, with a maximum deviation of 116ft (35.5m).

The YouTuber from Aldridge, in the West Midlands, said it was not an easy challenge, and that some would say it was "completely pointless".

• Walker, 75, completes 870-mile birthday challenge

• Machine lets wheelchair users experience walking

"It sounds horrendous, and it was horrendous, but we live in an age now where so much has been done, so much of the map has been discovered or completed.

"I think this is quite a big nugget of adventure that hadn't been done.

"It was a stone that hadn't been turned over and I've turned it over."

Tom said the journey was harder than his attempts in Norway and Scotland.

He walked 10 miles (16km) a day and admitted that while that "doesn't sound a lot", the obstacles in his path included mountains and more.

"Then there's all the forests with fallen trees you have to climb over and under - it just knackers you out," he said.

Tom has just shared the results after completing the challenge in January.

He said he could not wait to go back to Wales in a more relaxed capacity.

He documented the journey and posted it on YouTube to his 1.2m subscribers. His videos have had hundreds of thousands of views.

'It just exploded'

Tom said he was more determined than ever to conquer the Wales route as he was challenged by two other YouTubers, having failed previously because of GPS failure or illness.

His previous attempts in Wales helped to grow his YouTube audience, alongside videos playing GeoGuessr, an online game where people have to guess a location via Google Street View.

Tom Davies said it was incredible that it did not rain during his challenge to walk across Wales in a straight line

"I had about 60,000 subscribers, and it was during the pandemic where people were looking for videos to escape," he said.

"It was a bit of a gamble, but it was a unique, fun and original idea and it just exploded."

Tom said he wanted to inspire people to get outdoors.

"One of the main aims is to get people to leave their comfort zone and challenge themselves."

He said a lot more people from all over the world were now trying this form of adventure, and they only realised how tough straight line missions were when they got out and did it.