German 71-year-old Kuno Penner is taking the long way home as he walks across Australia and the world

Walking around the world is not how everyone pictures retirement, but that is exactly what a 71-year-old German has spent the past five years doing.

Kuno Penner is currently making his way through the North West, battling the region’s scorching temperatures and high humidity rather than “sitting at home waiting for cancer”.

He left Germany in 2017 and has walked across 25 countries, including Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, India, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand.

“I just want to see the world. I think everybody would like to see the world, but I just do it. When I walk I see much more and meet more people,” Mr Penner said.

“It’s very interesting for me. Normal people in my age, when they are retired they are sitting at home, watching TV and waiting for cancer.

“This I don’t like.”

He arrived in Australia in January 2021 and originally planned to use his three month visa to go from Cairns to Sydney before flying to New Zealand.

Mr Penner walks between 30-40km a day with a motorised trolley carrying water, food, a tent and a solar panel.

He said he reached Brisbane just as a lockdown hit in February last year and had to get his visa extended.

“I decided I will do the rest of Australia; thanks to coronavirus I can do it now,” he said.

“My first visa was only three months. In this time I could have could gone from from Cairns to Sydney and then to New Zealand.”

Eventually he was able to leave Brisbane, travelling through Sydney and Melbourne before going to Tasmania.

Currently Mr Penner is in Karratha as he makes his way north, aiming to reach Cairns by July and fly to New Zealand.

He said there were a lot of challenges in walking around Australia.

“Sometimes animals are challenging; the weather sometimes it was very heavy rain when I crossed the Nullarbor,” he said.

“It was cold at night, a few times less than zero degrees. It’s very cold for me. I was not used to it anymore.

“And now it’s too hot. I will learn to manage it.”

Mr Penner said he carried 40 litres of water but was also given some by drivers or when he stumbled across farms.

He said he would eventually find his way back home.

“I’m not homesick,” he said.