American walker goes round the world at 80 years

By Andrew Beatty

PANAMA CITY (Reuters Life!) - Striding around Panama City on tree-trunk legs that have carried him through 66 countries, 80-year-old U.S. citizen Harry Lee McGinnis reckons he knows the secret of staying healthy into old age.

"Movement," he explains, as he readies for the final stage of an 80,000-mile around-the-world walk that has taken him 18 years so far, inspired by glossy photos of foreign lands he pored over as a child.

A towering figure with a muscular build and the rugged looks of actor Roger Moore, McGinnis is not your average old-age pensioner.

"Moore and I are the same age, but I think he looks older," he jokes.

Strolling up Panama City's skyscraper-lined Avenue Balboa, McGinnis puts his nomadic retirement down to a deep curiosity about the world, which comes through as he chats about everything from the Chinese economy to nanotechnology.

"I grew up in a time of adventure, with films like Marco Polo and stars like Errol Flynn," he said.

Born in rural Indiana in 1927, shortly before the great depression, McGinnis's grandparents taught him to read before he started school by studying National Geographic magazine.

They sparked a stubborn wanderlust that has seen McGinnis spend the last two decades on his feet, accompanied by a huge steel-tipped wooden staff and a 100 lb (45 kg) backpack.