Belgian ‘dude’ faces polar bears, heat and rough terrain in 34,000-km trek

A self-described Belgian “serial explorer” who just finished skiing, kayaking, cycling and sailing his way from Nunavut to the southernmost tip of South America says he is ready for a rest.

For a little while.

“It was my dream to do this trip,” 35-year-old Arnaud Maldague said last week in an interview from his home in, Brussels.

On Dec. 4, he finished his seven-year-long expedition through the Americas from the Arctic to the southernmost tip of South America. It started in Kugaaruk in January 2018.

The total distance covered in the 17-country expedition was 34,697 kilometres, done in one continuous trek rather than in segments.

Maps show the approximate route of Arnaud Maldague’s Manneken Trip from Kugaaruk to South America. (Map courtesy of Arnaud Maldague)

It took twice as long as Maldague initially planned, partly because he lost nearly two and a half years during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions.

And even though he had spent two years training and preparing for the trip, in some areas it took him longer to adjust to the local conditions and means of transportation than he had anticipated.

The trip was self-financed; Maldague, who worked at a sports store before setting out, says he put “everything he had” into fulfilling this dream, including using some money his mother left him when she died.

Maldague embarked on his one-man fuel-free adventure seven years ago in Kugaaruk when it was -50 C with wind chills.

From there, he skied for 1,705 kilometres to Churchill, Man., sleeping mostly in a tent and surviving encounters with two polar bears, including one that tried to get into his tent while he slept and only ran away when he fired his gun in the air.

Then he cycled his way south from Churchill to Minnesota for 1,959 kilometres; kayaked the full length of the Mississippi River; cycled again from New Orleans, La., to Belize; and sailed for almost 10,000 kilometres in the Caribbean.

And then, after another roughly 12,800 kilometres of cycling, horseback riding and canoeing, he finally reached Cape San Pío in Argentina, the southernmost tip of mainland South America.

Arnaud Maldague sails with a model of Manneken Pis, a fountain in Belgium that he named his 17-country fuel-free expedition across the two Americas after. (Photo courtesy of Arnaud Maldague )

Maldague called this journey from North to south the ‘Manneken Trip,’ after Manneken Pis, a famous 55.5-centimetre bronze statue in Brussels that depicts a little boy urinating into the basin of a fountain.

In Brussels slang, Manneken also means “little guy” or “dude.”
“And I am not very tall myself,” said Maldague, who stands 5-foot-6.

He added: “It’s not to be taken too seriously. And it was not a good idea,” explaining that few people outside of Belgium understood the reference.

Now that the trip is done, Maldague is looking for partners to create either a documentary or a book based on his travels. He has his memory and many hours of footage to draw from.

This wasn’t the first time he set out on his own to see the world — in 2012, he cycled 13,000 kilometres over eight months from Belgium across Europe and parts of Asia, with a few shortcuts by plane.

Maldague said he is ready to rest right now, but is already looking for potential future trips.

Maybe back to the Arctic. Or to Antarctica. Possibly the North Pole or South Pole.

He said he doesn’t feel unique or special because of his adventurous spirit and the Manneken Trip.

“It feels nice to be able to go for your dreams,” he said.

“That’s just something to be thankful for.”