Mercurius
Legend
I think I asked this question many years ago on this site or another, but can't find the thread (OK, I didn't really look - but thought it would be an interesting thread to start again).
Basically I'm wanting to know realistic figures for travel times, both by different means (foot, horse, wagon, boat, galleon) and under different conditions and terrain (flat road, hills, mountains/rough terrain). Let's assume a healthy and hearty "adventurer-type" individual.
Does anyone have an educated sense of the matter?
From what I can gather, a realistic number for walking is about 25 miles on flat terrain - that's about 3 miles per hour, for 9-10 hours including rests. I would imagine that if one took a "dawn until dusk" approach and walked very fast and/or jogged part of the way, they could bring that figure close to 50 miles, but that would be exhausting for all but the hardiest individual (think Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli chasing the orcs in The Two Towers).
There are of course the legendary Incan runners who supposedly ran 100 miles over 24-hours, but that couldn't have been sustainable for more than one long run every couple weeks. I'm mainly looking for the quest-style travel over many weeks.
What about horse? My guess is that, without exhausting the animal--occasionally walking it, varying speeds from walk to trot to canter--40 -50 miles in a day is reasonable, but I don't know. I don't know, but I'd imagine that if one were willing to kill a horse they could travel 150 miles or so in a day.
Boats? Galleons? Etc.
Basically I'm wanting to know realistic figures for travel times, both by different means (foot, horse, wagon, boat, galleon) and under different conditions and terrain (flat road, hills, mountains/rough terrain). Let's assume a healthy and hearty "adventurer-type" individual.
Does anyone have an educated sense of the matter?
From what I can gather, a realistic number for walking is about 25 miles on flat terrain - that's about 3 miles per hour, for 9-10 hours including rests. I would imagine that if one took a "dawn until dusk" approach and walked very fast and/or jogged part of the way, they could bring that figure close to 50 miles, but that would be exhausting for all but the hardiest individual (think Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli chasing the orcs in The Two Towers).
There are of course the legendary Incan runners who supposedly ran 100 miles over 24-hours, but that couldn't have been sustainable for more than one long run every couple weeks. I'm mainly looking for the quest-style travel over many weeks.
What about horse? My guess is that, without exhausting the animal--occasionally walking it, varying speeds from walk to trot to canter--40 -50 miles in a day is reasonable, but I don't know. I don't know, but I'd imagine that if one were willing to kill a horse they could travel 150 miles or so in a day.
Boats? Galleons? Etc.