It’s pretty wild thought that you might be able to take a 20 minute walk and wind up 21 hours away. But that’s exactly what Andrew Laub (@andrew_laub) is claiming on TikTok.
As reported by Travel + Leisure, Laub posted a TikTok video titled ‘Geography Lesson Part 1: Tomorrowland’ about how when parts of the Bering Strait freeze over in winter, one can walk from the US island of Little Diomede to the Russian island of Big Diomede — land masses that are only 2.5 miles apart. "In the winter when the water freezes, you can walk from the United States to Russia in only 20 minutes," Laub says.
Although the two islands sit fairly close together, Big Diomede Island is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede, in a different time zone. ‘If you were to walk from the United States to Russia, you’d literally be walking into the next day,’ says Laub in the video. ‘This is why they call Little Diomede ‘Yesterdayland’ and Big Diomede, ‘Tomorrowland.’’ 1.2 million have liked his video on the platform.
However, the video doesn’t show the narrator making the walk, and some say the hypothetical doesn’t hold water (or ice). According to Angus Adventures, founded by Julie and Colin Angus, it’s a misconception that it’s easy to walk across the Bering Strait. ‘In reality there is a strong current flowing north through the strait which usually creates large channels of open water. On occasion these open channels become clogged with moving chunks of pan ice, so it is theoretically possible to jump from chunk to chunk, along with some swimming across the open leads. Luck is also required in having favourable currents,’ reads their website page on the Bering Strait.
Too good to be true? Laub, who’s based in New York City, told us, ‘I have not been able to make the trip to Alaska to walk from one island to the other, but it is possible! If you check out the part 5 video on my page, you can see that explorer Karl Bushby has done it. I don’t live in Alaska, but it’s definitely on my bucket list.’
In that video, Laub discusses Karl Bushby, who undertook walking the globe. He started in 1998 and isn’t yet done. As part of that trek, Bushby and fellow explorer Dimitri Kieffer were the first to not just walk between the two Diomedes, but the entire 52 miles of the Bering Strait (part of it involved swimming).
Not impressed yet? The previous year, American swimmer Lynne Cox swam between the diomedes, being in the icy water for 2 hours and 16 minutes — this kick-ass swimmer eschewed a wetsuit and did it in her swimsuit.