On TikTok and Instagram, there are hundreds of thousands to follow his journey, Paris-Algiers, on foot. Medhi Debbrah, 26, left on May 5 with a 17-kilo bag on her back, sleeping bags, a tent, dry shampoo, a stove, a small solar panel and a notebook to write on. And it’s not the first time in his life that he’s hit the road.
He started at 19 with a Paris-Marseille, before moving on to Paris-Venice, Paris-Lisbon, Paris-Copenhagen, Paris-San Sebastien… until last summer, when he decided to stop, to put away the backpack and find a job. He became a waiter in a brasserie, but in December his father left, died at home, and Mehdi questioned everything. “I understood how short life washe confides to the journalist of the Parisian, and there is no time to waste.“
Quickly, he takes stock of what matters to him, and decides to hit the road again to see his grandfather, his father’s father, in Algeria, to surprise him, and to do it on foot, “to meditate while walking, he said, think about the basics, try to be the best version of myself”. He therefore saved a few months, before resigning and leaving for this 4,000 kilometer trip which took him through all of France, Switzerland, Italy, Tunisia, which he reached by boat and finally Algeria.
And this adventure fascinates hundreds of thousands of people. Wherever he goes, he is encouraged, supported, also fed since the inhabitants come to offer him a bit of everything, he takes eggs, fruits, but politely refuses processed products to stay as close as possible to simplicity, essential. And then, Mehdi is housed. Admiring strangers invite him. He who had planned to sleep alone and outside describes a “incredible generosity“, spontaneous.
He also opened a kitty, assuming that if people want to give, as much as it is for a concrete cause, in this case the construction of a water tower in a small Algerian village. Immediate success: the sum was collected in a few days. Donations always accompanied by the same messages saluting his sincerity, his authenticity, his humility. In short, everything we would like to be, basically, if we too were looking for the best version of ourselves.