"To go to Belgium would have been a suicide mission"

The utter delightful comedy of the farce that was Mark Boyle's ill fated to walk to India relying on the kindness of strangers has just got better.

Though it has been reported all over that he gave up,

"After reaching Calais Mr Boyle made the decision to quit his trip because as he could not speak French people thought he was an asylum seeker or a freeloader and would not give him food or board.

The 28-year-old kept an online diary of his adventure, where in one of his final entries he wrote: "…they had also seen us as just a bunch of freeloading backpackers, which is the complete opposite of what the pilgrimage is about".

Well of course being a freeloading backpacker is utterly different from somebody who expects others to pay for their bed, board and passage. How did he travel across the channel? He broke his own code of conduct. Whether Kate was pretty we do not know.
But for me the priceless moment is when the three of them Boyle, Eric and Kate decided to throw in the towel, (from his own blog)

"Eric decided that given his lack of training and the critical food situation that to go to Belgium would have been a suicide mission, and I tended to agree".

Now I know that I have had my problems with this flat land, but a suicide mission?