Globetrotter sends clear message to Warrnambool students after dangerous world trek

Mr Clear was held at gunpoint three times and beaten up during his 15,600-kilometre journey which took him from South America to Canada, and Moscow to Spain.

The Catholic missionary's 568-day trek aimed to spread a message of unity, but it it almost cost him his life.

"That's two birthdays, two Christmases and two Easters on the road," he said.

"It was a difficult journey. I nearly died 11 times. I was held at gunpoint three times and had to negotiate my way out.

"I had two bedroom invasions in Brazil and Honduras, was beaten up on the side of the road in Russia in the middle of the snow by two guys who were drunk and pursued by a third once I finally got away."

Mr Clear also came face-to-face with a puma in South America, and was stung by a scorpion in Costa Rica that caused his heart to go into palpitations.

He ended up in hospital with salmonella poisoning, typhoid fever, food poisoning four times, he dislodged his hip and had two operations on his big toe "which was turning itself inside out".

Twice people tried to stone him because they thought he was American, and telling the farmer at the end of a gun that he was Australian helped him diffuse the situation he'd found himself in.

Mr Clear said the first time he was held at gunpoint he was eating lunch in the countryside when a farmer snuck up behind him and held a gun to his head. "He was shaking so much the gun jack-hammered me in the head a few times," Mr Clear said.

While he lives on a farm in central Tasmania, he often visits schools to "unpack" his journey which he did with King's College students this week.

Mr Clear played football in Tasmania and was called up to play a reserves game with the Western Bulldogs before being invited to do the pre-season with Collingwood.

He wasn't picked up in the draft that year, and shortly after returning to Tassie broke his back in a tractor accident. "I never played AFL again but that sent me on a whole different path," he said.

His back injury meant kneeling, sitting and standing caused pain but his doctor had told him "you might want to think about walking".

"My back was broken in such a way that it actually make walking longer distances slightly easier," he said.

"I slept in everything from five-star hotels to hospitality in people's homes to a toilet in Texas - the only safe place I could find in a dangerous area and lock myself in for the night."

He camped, slept in hammocks between trees and even in a hammock under a truck.

To prepare for his journey he'd spoken to someone who had walked across the United States who went though 15 pairs of sneakers.

"I am a size 16. I can't just walk into a shop and find shoes. I usually have to order them or find a speciality shop," he said.

So he bought Scarpa Italian walking boots that cost between $500 and $600 a pair. He wore through three pairs on his trek.

Mr Clear stopped at every church he passed, as well as mosques.

He said his mission was to pray for unity, and encouraging others to do the same, as well as "pray for the very people who you think the world will be better without."

But what he saw and experienced made him lose faith in humanity, something he has worked to regain.

He said there were people who were starving to death but entire villages that could help didn't because they said it was the government who should help.

"I was just shattered when I got home. I had post traumatic stress disorder. I didn't sleep through a single night for six month after I got back from the nightmares," Mr Clear said.

He has made a documentary and written a book, Walk4one - Paving a Path to Unity, about his 2006-2008 journey.

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