French traveler Mohamed Boulabiar spent eight months walking through 13 countries to perform Umrah, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
In an interview with the SPA shortly after arriving in Madinah on Wednesday, Boulabiar said he trained for two years for the 8,000-km walk.
He started in Paris on Aug. 27, 2023, and walked through Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkiye and Jordan before eventually reaching Saudi Arabia.
With only a map and a bag containing essential provisions and a tent weighing only 25 kg, Boulabiar said he spent most of his nights at mosques along the route or with generous strangers who welcomed him into their homes.
Boulabiar said the hardest part of the journey was the weather.
“I departed in the summer and arrived in the spring, passing through autumn and winter, enduring storms and thunder. At one stage of the journey, a snowstorm at the Greek border delayed my trip by a week,” he said.
“It has been a dream since childhood. I yearned to arrive in Makkah on foot, emulating the prophet,” said Boulabiar.
