When most people take a walk home they usually take the shortest route. However when a 26-year German man decided to walk home he took the longest way in a journey planned to take two years to complete – and made a video to prove it.

Setting out from Beijing on his birthday in November 2007, Christoph Rehage attempted to walk across central Asia and Eastern Europe, from Beijing in China to his family home in Bad Nenndorf in the Northwest of Germany, taking the safest, longest way home.

After one year of deserts, sandstorms, baking heat and icy blizzards covering a distance of 4,646 km (2,885 miles) he realized he had – “a mighty long beard.”

Whether that was all he realized or not the young adventurer isn’t saying, but after taking the longest way home for one year, he decided on a faster method to complete the journey.

In a similar context to the Where the Hell is Matt video series that went viral on YouTube several years ago, Rehage’s longest way home journey has just started to build momentum on YouTube.

Titled The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse the snappy five minute production covers the young mans changing hairstyles and appearance throughout his journey set against a backdrop of areas he passed through.

Claiming he wasn’t trying to set any sort of record, Rehage claims his marathon walk nothing philosophizing that in life it is the longest way from a daydream to a dream.