Rosewood History. Qld.
Walking the World
Young Dane’s Undertaking
9,810 Miles Completed.
From the Rosewood Register and Marburg Mail ……..
After completing a journey of 9,810 miles on foot, there has reached Rosewood a young Dane who set out from Copenhagen on July 26th, 1913, with the intention of walking round the world for a 15,000 kroner (£900) wager.
A condition of the wager was that Mr Langager should start with nothing and maintain himself by selling photographs of himself on his way, and so far he appears to have succeeded admirably. He is 21 years of age and the picture of good health, while his spirits are dauntless.
To win the wager he has to arrive back at the Danish capital by two o’clock on the afternoon of December 26th, 1915- 2 ½ years after commencing his journey. He has already traversed the principal European countries and reached Australia from Cape Colony. He has walked from Melbourne, and is proceeding to Brisbane. He hopes to then make his way to India and America, crossing from the States to England, and so on to Copenhagen.
No fewer than six languages, Danish, Swedish, English, Dutch, French and German, are fluently spoken by Mr Langager, who says he is now studying Chinese! On the road he easily averages from 25 to 30 miles a day, his record walk for one day being fifty miles.
Giving his Australian impression, Mr Langager spoke in high terms of the Commonwealth, but naively added that ho had been “fighting the flies and mosquitoes very badly!”
Naturally he has met with many strange adventures, and has on more than one occasion been in peril of his life, either through misunderstanding or ill-will on the part of uncivilised races with whom he has come into contact.
Three members of a sporting club are the other parties to the wager, which Mr Langager says he took up with an eye to seeing the world and to educating himself, although he does not despise the £900 he is out to win. Whenever it is necessary to travel by water he always works his passage, and in this connection has served as baker, cook, waiter, and cabin boy on different vessels.
He left Rosewood about. 10 a.m., and expects to be at Ipswich Grand Hotel by dinner time today Friday, November 20th, 1914. A copy of this article is being posted to the wage-layers in Denmark.
In the conditions of the wager set down by the Danish Sporting Club, there was also the covenant that Lauritz must return to his native town with a wife. While in Antwerp, 123 Belgian ladies wrote to him on the delicate subject of matrimony, but none of the offers were suitable. Other conditions stipulated were that he was not allowed to ride in a rain, tram, or other vehicle, but while at sea he could work his passage in any capacity.
This article is from August 1914 when he arrived in Australia.
Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tasmania), Friday 14 August 1914, page 4
WALKING ROUND THE WORLD.
For a wager of £900, Mr L. L. Langager, a, member of the Danish Sporting Club, has undertaken to walk round the world in two and a half years. He arrived in Melbourne a few days ago by the steamer Euripides from South Africa, after having journeyed through the Continent and a considerable portion of Africa, on foot. Starting from Copenhagen, Langager crossed to Scandinavia. From Malmur, in Sweden, he walked to Stockholm, through Norway, and thence via Christiania to St. Petersburg. He then travelled back through Russia to Copenhagen, and making a fresh start, crossed Denmark into Germany. Passing through Liege, where the great battle is now raging, be entered France. Subsequently Langager crossed over to Great Britain, and after touring Scotland, Ireland and Wales, took a steamer to the west coast of Africa. Walking via the coast he reached Capetown several weeks ago.
The walking tourist carries a passport, one of the conditions of the wager is that he should possess no money, but he may work and receive goods in exchange. He is also permitted to sell portrait post cards of himself for threepence each. Langager is 21 years, of age, a teetotaller and a non-smoker. During portion of the tour already accomplished he has worked at various trades and carries references as a cook, baker, waiter and bookkeeper.
He started from Copenhagen without boots or hat, clad in a paper suit, but subsequently was able to earn sufficient to purchase proper clothing. It is his intention to walk to Sydney and Brisbane. From the latter city he will take a boat to China, and after touring that country, proceed to America on the homeward journey.
Langager was welcomed by the members of the Melbourne Danish Club on Monday night.
Laurtiz arrived at Moss Vale on 11th September on his way from Melbourne to Sydney. Leaving Sydney on 13th October, he arrived at Tamworth on 22nd October. He left Warwick on 9th November and and arrived at Toowoomba on 11th, and called at the Chronicle office where he was interviewed.
Lauritz left Rosewood and arrived in Ipswich, as he had planned, on Friday afternoon 20th November.
The Queensland Times of Saturday 21st, on page 3, reported:
GLOBE TROTTER – Round the world on foot in two years and a half! This is what Lauritz L. Langager, for a wager of £900, has set himself to accomplish, and it certainly looks as though he will succeed. The pedestrian arrived in Ipswich yesterday afternoon from Rosewood, and is just six weeks ahead of his schedule time. The conditions under which Mr. Langager is walking are peculiar. He started with absolutely nothing in the way of money, must make his living by the sale of his photographs, and return to Copenhagen (from which he started on July 26, 1913) on the 26th of December, 1915, at 2 p.m. Countries he has already passed through include Russia, Germany, France, England, and Africa; and China, India, and America are soon to be crossed by this untiring Dane.
Upon his arrival in Ipswich from the Southern States, the total number of miles traversed reached 9826 and there are about 6000 more to cover before he may claim the wager.
As may be guessed, the pedestrian has some interesting tales to tell. While in South-West Africa, 18 miles from Port Nolloth, he was attacked by Hottentots, and received a fearful knife wound in the neck, the scar of which he will carry to his grave. He succeeded, however, in drawing his revolver, and shot the nearest negro, thus getting clear of them, as the companions of his assailant bolted. Helpless and wounded, and with nothing in the way of surgical appliances, the dauntless Dane tore up his “pants” and dressed the wound, arriving eventually at the Port, 18 miles away, almost trouserless. He was in the hospital there for eight days, and on the second day the Hottentot he had shot was also brought in, and after confessing having inflicted the wound on his fellow-sufferer, he died in the next bed to him.
Mr. Langager will make a round of visits today, and will resume his walk on Sunday morning. The genuineness of the affair is vouched for by the hundreds of signatures the pedestrian has in his travel-book, and includes those of consuls and police magistrates in every town of any size he has passed through.
© Jane Schy 2026