The following was published by the Waseca County News, Waseca, MN, in two parts on November 29 and December 4, 2001.
Editor's note: Dave Kunst of Waseca began a walk around the world in 1970 with his brother, John, and their mule, Willie Makeit. On Oct. 21. 1972, in Afghanistan, they were attacked by bandits; Dave was wounded and John was killed. In early 1973, Dave and his brother, Pete resumed the walk which was completed in Waseca on Oct. 5, 1974. Kunst holds the record for the first verified walk around the world. He lives in California.
Today, when Afghanistan is on everyone's mind, Kunst recalled his experiences in that country for the County News.
When John and I crossed the border from Iran into Afghanistan we were in darkness but the cooler air was a welcome relief from the blistering son of the day. It had been a long, long day of walking because we had pushed ourselves to make it to the safety of the border station. We were in a part of the world that was very exciting but we always had in the back of our minds an uneasy feeling of danger. The Iranians told us the Afghans would kill us as the Turks had told us that the Iranians would kill us. Such statements were very unsettling. We were following the old Silk Route that had been used by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane. John and I had a real sense of experiencing ancient history and we tried to remember what we had learned during our school days.
Earlier that afternoon we passed some very small Iranian villages that were off the road at least half a mile. The American Embassy in Tehran had warned us that it might be dangerous to camp in tiny villages that were off the main road. For that reason we decided to make it to the border where we had been told there was a military contingent.
To our surprise the Governor of Herat had sent one of his trusted friends who spoke English to meet us and he was there when we walked into Afghanistan. The American Embassy in Kabul had asked the governor to make sure our walk through his province was as safe as possible. The man had studied in the US and he liked America and Americans. He told us that his country could be extremely dangerous to Western foreigners. He described in detail what had happened to four Frenchmen in Kandahar six months earlier. The Frenchmen had been invited into an Afghan home and unexpectedly a Mullah with very strong anti western views showed up with some friends. He got extremely upset because he felt that the French infidels were a bad influence on the family, especially the young son who was a student of his. The Mullah and the Frenchmen got into a heated argument that ended with the Frenchmen getting their throats slit.
In the morning two solders were assigned to walk with us to Herat. The governor's friend told us he would be out to check on our progress as we neared the city. Then he drove off in his land rover and as he disappeared in the distance the wind picked up considerably. It was the start of the 120 day winds that blow across that area of Afghanistan in late Spring and early Summer. For the next few days we were sand blasted, thanks to the way the wind swiped sand from the ground and peppered it into everything in site. Thank goodness it quieted down some at dusk so we could set up camp and eat in relative calm. In the morning as the sun lifted from the horizon the wind picked up again and attacked us with a vengeance. It was the worse blowing we experienced during our walk around the world.
The Governor of Herat was a wonderful host. We were put up in the best hotel for a few days and fed scrumptious Afghan meals that always included lots of rice and lamb. The day we were to leave the governor showed up with a Nomad dog that looked like an Alaskan Husky with rabies. It took two Afghans to control the creature. The animal was to be our protection as we walked across Afghanistan. The governor told us it would be a great night protector so we could sleep in peace. I looked at John and he looked at me and we both shook our heads no. Who would protect us from the beast that had to be held at bay by two Afghans? We politely and graciously told the governor that we could not accept so he had the two men take the dog away. John and I often wondered just how the governor expected us to handle such a ferocious dog. Instead of the dog three policemen were assigned to walk with us.
The two lane highway from the Afghan border to Herat and on into Kandahar was great. A ribbon of concrete that was built by the Soviet Union. The American Embassy told us the concrete was so thick it had to be in preparation for a tank invasion and that is what happened a few years after we finished the walk.
Although the governor of Herat had convinced the governor of Kandahar to assign policemen to walk with us through Kandahar province we walked right through the city itself without stopping. The American Embassy had warned us that it was probably the most dangerous city in Afghanistan for infidels because of the hard-core fundamentalist mullahs who controlled it.
Kandahar was founded by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan ransacked the city in the 12th century and the Kunst brothers were following in their footsteps. Wow! It was an exciting area of the world and very brutal for us because we were within the boundaries of the dry and dusty Dasht-i-Margo. Better known by the English name, Desert of Death and it was the hottest area we walked in the world. An English couple on their way to India stopped to chat and they told us it was 124 degrees. Thank goodness we had the wagon to carry plenty of water because it was burning hot and John and I and Willie were always thirsty. The water we carried on our wagon was warm but it still seemed like the drink of the gods.
Later in the day a panel truck stopped and an American family who lived on the American Embassy compound in Kabul got out. They were driving to Mashed, Iran for a short holiday. Mr. Steven's worked for the state department and he had an official embassy letter for us. I will always remember one sentence from that letter. It said, “ be assured you are in some danger here, the people in this country will kill you for your possessions or for their resentment of you being in their country and it happens more often than most Americans realize”. It was a shocking revelation coming from the American Embassy.
The soldiers who walked with us through Herat province had pretty good uniforms and they had their own water, food and tent. The policemen who walked with us through the Kandahar area were ragtag and without water or food so we had to share ours. They had a tent but that night they could not figure out how to put it up? John and I forced ourselves not to laugh to loud while watching them trying to get it up. Finally we just had to help them do it. They were so inexperienced that if any bad guys showed up we knew they would not be much help to us.
When we entered Kabul province our Kandahar police escorts returned home and we walked alone into the capital city. At about 5900 ft Kabul is one of the highest capital cities in the World. It has strategic importance because of its proximity to the famous Khyber Pass which is the gateway into the Indian subcontinent.
Unlike the turbaned men in Kandahar, the turbaned men in Kabul seemed friendly like those we met in Herat. The men in Herat and Kabul seemed more acceptable of two Americans than the men in Kandahar. Since the women covered themselves from head to toe with a burka and were treated like second class citizens it really didn’t matter what they thought about us.
Arriving in the capital city we went right to the American Embassy where we were expected and well received. The mayor and the tourist bureau were contacted and we were put up in the Kabul Hotel. Willie Makeit II, our mighty Portuguese mule was put up at the city stables and our small Turkish supply wagon stayed on the embassy grounds. We were all set for a week of rest in an ancient city that was still existing much the same as it did during biblical times.
I will always remember a captain of the Kabul police force and in particular what he told us. He spoke very good English and he really liked Americans and when I asked him if he would like to visit the USA he said, “most of my people want to go to Mecca and I say to hell with Mecca I want to go to America”.
During our stay in Kabul we went to see the Afghan National sport called Buzkashi which means goat grabbing! A headless carcass is placed in the center of a circle that is surrounded by horsemen of two opposing teams. The object of the game is to get control of the carcass and bring it to a scoring area. The players whip each other and bump their horses into each other as they fight over the dead goat. The competition was fierce and there are no boundaries so all spectators are in danger of being run down and trampled. That day a young boy and an old man were severely injured when the horsemen overran the position we were watching from and it was just good luck that John and I got out of their way in time.
As we walked out of Kabul following the highway along the Kabul River through the Hindu Kush mountain range toward the famous Khyber Pass my imagination went wild. The Khyber Pass area has been a silent witness to countless great events in the history of mankind. The story of Khyber Pass is composed of so much history and romance and tragedy and glory that fact really looks stranger than fiction.
Two days later about 10 miles from Jalalabad on the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul Highway in the Kabul River valley we were attacked by Afghan bandits. John was shot and killed and I was wounded.
Afghanistan is a country composed of ancient cultures and tribes that are ruled by warlords and there are always bandits in the pass. Today it is still a country of people who believe in an ancient form of Islam that allows and condones severe, and sometimes barbaric religious rules, regulations and punishment.
In my opinion, now is the time for the people Afghanistan to change their crude existence, become a democracy and revise their outdated version of Islam so they can join the modern civilized world.
It is also my opinion that the American military is doing a remarkable job of destroying the Moslem warriors in that country who wish to do harm to America and Americans.