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  • This premiere episode of Half as Interesting was made possible by Skillshare.

  • The first 200 people to sign up with the link in the description can learn for free for

  • two months.

  • So here's the question: what's the single longest drivable distance between two points

  • on earth, but before you tell me to go drive around a roundabout infinite times, let me

  • place this caveat: this route has to be the shortest one between two points on earth.

  • Ok, so there are basically four distinct major road systems on earth the biggest one being

  • this one, the Eur

  • EurAf

  • Eurafrasian one?

  • The one spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa.

  • These three continents are all connected by land so it makes sense that they're all

  • connected by road, right?

  • Wrong, because I lied.

  • It's impossible to cross from Africa to Asia fully on land because of thisthe Suez

  • canal.

  • This is the canal that makes the trip from Europe to Asia by boat this instead of this.

  • The only physical connection between the two continents is therefore the three bridges

  • spanning the canal, but the road system is still contiguous so it still counts as one

  • big road system.

  • Speaking of big things, the 6th largest country in the world and 1st smallest continent, Australia,

  • has its own major road system but there's not much to say about it other than if you

  • go a little bit this way you get to Americaboth of them.

  • Much like Africa and Asia, the Americas technically are not connected because of a man-made canalthe

  • Panama canal.

  • But that's not a problem because there are multiple bridges spanning the narrow waterway.

  • The problem is thisthe Darien gap.

  • Not a single road crosses this desolate swampland spanning over the Panama-Columbia border.

  • The area is overrun with para-military forces and drug-lords.

  • There's just not enough demand to make braving the marshy and dangerous area to build a road

  • worth it.

  • So that's why North America and South America have two completely separate, unconnected

  • road systems.

  • So, where could our longest route start?

  • Basically, here, here, here, here, or here.

  • The North American road system goes as far north as Prudhoe Bay in Canada's Canada,

  • Alaska, and as far south as Yaviza in Panama but this only clocks in 7,500 miles.

  • That is six straight days of driving, but it's not even close to the longest route.

  • In fact, quite understandably, North America, South America, and Australia all don't have

  • any of the longest routes.

  • Now, common logic would suggest that the longest continuous route would go between somewhere

  • in Southern Africa to somewhere else is eastern Russia, but common logic is wrong.

  • There are a few issues.

  • First, almost every direct route heading up the African continent routes via the west

  • side of the continent which brings a traveller to here: Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic

  • of the Congo.

  • Just across the river from Kinshasa is Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo but no bridge

  • spans between the two country capitals.

  • The fastest routes between Southern Africa and Asia also almost always route through

  • Western Europe rather than the Middle East since the highways are better developed and

  • faster, but this means that a traveller has to cross the Mediterranean by ferry which

  • disqualifies this route.

  • So we have to originate in Europe.

  • In Europe, the most extreme point on the contiguous road network is Sagres, Portugal and then

  • you can drive as far east as the banks of the Aldan River in Russia.

  • That's 8,437 total miles, but that's still not quite the farthest you can drive.

  • It's a even longer distance to drive hereKhasan, Russia.

  • Khasan is the only Russian town to border North Korea and it is also the most extreme

  • point of their road system.

  • With no ferries and only two customs checkpoints thanks to the European Union, you can therefore

  • drive continuously for 8,726 miles in 6 days and 19 hours from Sagres, Portugal to Khasan,

  • Russia, and that is the longest continuous, direct driving route in the world.

  • If you do decide to drive this route, I suggest signing up for Skillshare because they let

  • you learn no matter where you are.

  • The good news is that their classes will last you the entire drive since they have over

  • 16,000 of them and you can download them offline with the iOS and Android apps.

  • A lot of people ask me all the time how to get started with making youtube videos and

  • the first step is to learn how to edit.

  • For that I recommend theirVisual Storytelling with Final Cut Pro X” class which gives

  • you a great starting point.

  • You can get two free months of learning to check out their thousands of courses by being

  • one of the first 200 people to sign up over at skl.sh/hai.

  • They made the start of this series possible so please show them your appreciation by at

  • least going and checking them out over at the link below.

This premiere episode of Half as Interesting was made possible by Skillshare.

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